Ant Group announced Monday that it would assist four Asian e-wallets, including GCash from the Philippines and Touch’n Go from Malaysia, in expanding into South Korea with its cross-border payment service Alipay+. This comes when travel restrictions are beginning to be lifted throughout Asia.
The move would enable customers of e-wallets that use Alipay+, such as GCash, Touch’n Go, Thailand’s TrueMoney, and AlipayHK, to make payments at over 120,000 businesses. The Chinese fintech giant said in a statement that South Korea uses their local mobile payment apps.
According to Ant, the first group of available merchants would consist of establishments such as cabs, duty-free shops, and convenience stores.
Alipay+ will begin offering its services and technological tools to global merchants and e-wallets in 2020. These tools and services will allow these businesses to enable their customers to utilize their local e-wallets to make payments in international marketplaces. Among its electronic wallet customers is the company that bears its name, Alipay.
At the beginning of this month, South Korea became the latest nation to remove pre-departure COVID-19 test requirements for international travelers, following in the footsteps of Japan and other countries that have previously done so.
Malaysia’s Touch’n Go users were able to use their e-wallets to make payments in Singapore thanks to Alipay+ in June.
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