Ant seeks to grow Alipay+ use in South-east Asian e-wallets, Buy Now Pay Later

CHINA'S Ant Group plans to add more South-east Asian payments services to Alipay+, its cross-border payments solution. This could include e-wallets or even buy now, pay later (BNPL) services, said Cheng Guoming, general manager for the Alipay+ Global Payment Partnership.

"A lot of mobile payment businesses are booming, especially with the pandemic, in South-east Asia. It has grown very fast and I see a lot of competition there, but it is healthy," said Cheng, who spoke to The Business Times on the back of the Singapore FinTech Festival.

Launched last year, Alipay+ is a software suite that allows both online and physical businesses to process transactions from a range of digital payments partners. Its partners in South-east Asia include e-wallets such as Singapore's EZ-Link Wallet and Malaysia's Touch 'n Go.