Friday, March 29

Tag: alipay

Alibaba’s Ant Group files for IPO in Hong Kong & Shanghai
Market

Alibaba’s Ant Group files for IPO in Hong Kong & Shanghai

Shanghai, Aug 25th, 2020: The financial firm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba led Ant Group filed for a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai. This could be one of the largest IPO since the Covid19 pandemic began in China. Ant Group operates Alipay, one of China's leading online payment services. The IPO will be the first dual listing on the Hong Kong exchange and Shanghai's STAR Market. However, the company's filing did not disclose the timetable for IPO and how much money they are looking to raise. Over a billion users use Alipay to pay for purchases both online and in stores, to send money to friends, and to pay bills. In 12 months that ended in June, Ant Group tallied USD 17 trillion in transaction volume. In the filing, Ant Group said it plans to use the funds rais...
Ant Financial Raises $14 Billion From National And International Investors
FUNDING

Ant Financial Raises $14 Billion From National And International Investors

China’s biggest online payment platform Ant Financial Services Group which operates the Alipay mobile payment service, in its recent funding, has raised a huge amount of around $14 billion, with the aim to expand its platform across the globe and bring in latest technologies. Ant Financial which is controlled by Jack Ma is an Alibaba affiliated fintech firm. The investment of the firm is being reviewed as the biggest-ever single fundraising globally by any private sector company. In a statement, Ant Group told that the funding comprised of both U.S. dollar and Chinese yuan tranches, where the dollar share made up over $10 billion and the yuan tranche was mainly contributed by the existing shareholders. "Now, with the help of our partners, we are going to accelerate our strategy," Ant...
SoftBank Is In Talks With Zomato Over A Possible Investment
BUSINESS

SoftBank Is In Talks With Zomato Over A Possible Investment

The Japanese Internet Conglomerate, SoftBank Group Corp is reportedly in talks over a possible investment in food delivery and online restaurant company Zomato as told by sources familiar with the matter. The possibility of Softbank's future investment in Zomato has been speculating in the market since six months back when the Japanese giant first held conversations exploring a possible funding of up to $200-250 million in Bengaluru-based Swiggy. "SoftBank which has already backed Flipkart now eyes to make a niche for itself in the food delivery market said one of the sources. The development comes as SoftBank is reportedly yet to decide on selling its more than 20% stake in Flipkart to US retailer Walmart. The Report says that SoftBank is currently discussing business metrics across...
Alibaba Makes Fourth Investment of $1.3 Billion To Boost Offline Retail Strategy
CHINA

Alibaba Makes Fourth Investment of $1.3 Billion To Boost Offline Retail Strategy

Alibaba Group on Sunday revealed that it will be working towards expansion of its retail footprint and has announced that it invested RMB 5.45 billion (around $867 million) for 15% stake in Beijing Easyhome Furnishing, China’s second-largest home-improvement supplies and furniture chain and invested $486 million in Shiji Retail Information Technology, for 38% stakes. “The investment will combine the strengths of the world’s largest e-commerce platform and rich offline sources of Easyhome,” Alibaba said in a statement. Alibaba has been working on its strategy- "new retail" which is aimed at combining online and offline.  As a part of this strategy, the Beijing Easyhome deal is Alibaba's fourth major investment in a brick and mortar chain after it bought majority of stakes in hypermark...
Apple Brings Alibaba-linked Payment System into China Stores Amid Market Push
CHINA

Apple Brings Alibaba-linked Payment System into China Stores Amid Market Push

Apple Inc will accept Chinese mobile payment app Alipay in its local stores, boosting its ties with giant e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd amid a push by the iPhone maker to revive growth in the world’s No.2 economy. The tie-up will make Alipay, run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, the first third-party mobile payment system to be accepted at any physical Apple store worldwide, Ant Financial said in a statement on Wednesday. Apple’s own payment system has had a lukewarm reception in China. The Cupertino-based firm will accept Alipay payment across its 41 brick-and-mortar retail stores in China, said Ant Financial, which was valued at $60 billion in 2016. Apple, whose China website, iTunes store and App Store have been accepting Alipay for more than a year, did not imme...
Users Opting Mobile Payments Exceed 520 Million In China
CHINA

Users Opting Mobile Payments Exceed 520 Million In China

The number of Chinas mobile wallet users has exceeded 520 million with combined payments of over USD 6 trillion, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibabas financial services affiliate said today. According to the Peoples Bank of China, Chinese banks dealt with 8.6 billion payments from mobile services in the second quarter of this year, up 40.5 per cent from a year ago. The combined value of mobile payments jumped 33.8 per cent to 39.2 trillion yuan (USD six trillion). The growth came as user-friendly platforms such as WeChat Pay encourage online transactions. Also Read Google Will Track Your Location Even When You Turn It Off!     In April, Ant Financial, Alibabas financial affiliate which runs the popular Ali Pay -- Chinas leading third-party online payment ...
Tencent Beats Alibaba To $500B Valuation, Overtakes Facebook
ANALYSIS

Tencent Beats Alibaba To $500B Valuation, Overtakes Facebook

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]hina’s biggest social network and gaming firm Tencent Holdings, which last week reported forecast-beating quarterly results, is close to making Malaysia the first foreign country to roll out its WeChat ecosystem, an executive told Reuters. Tencent has made a “breakthrough” in gaining an e-payment license in Malaysia for local transactions, and plans a launch early next year, senior vice president S.Y. Lau said in an interview. The move pits Shenzhen-based Tencent against rival Alibaba Group as they scramble for new growth opportunities outside China. Tencent on Tuesday became the first Asian firm to enter the club of companies with a market value of more than $500 billion, surpassing that of Facebook. “Malaysia is actually quite large in the sense that we have ...
China Third Party Mobile Payments Alipay Climbs to USD 5.5 Trillion
CHINA

China Third Party Mobile Payments Alipay Climbs to USD 5.5 Trillion

Driven by the explosive growth of Internet finance, China is now witnessing a boom on mobile payment market which touched a whopping USD 5.5 trillion last year. Data showed that value of Chinese third-party mobile payments has tripled to 38 trillion yuan (USD 5.5 trillion) in 2016, state-run People's Daily reported on Saturday. With the popularity of mobile payment, Chinese people can enjoy life without cash or cards as what they need is a mobile device, it said. Even the farmers and herdsmen living in the remotest villages in Tibet can now use their cell phones to purchase daily necessities online since local administrative villages have been completely covered by communication signal. A survey by Nieslen, a US-headquartered global information data and measurement company, showed ...
One97 Communication Which Runs Paytm Raises 400 Crore From Mediatek, Valuation Upto $5 Billion
FUNDING

One97 Communication Which Runs Paytm Raises 400 Crore From Mediatek, Valuation Upto $5 Billion

Taiwanese chip designer MediaTekis investing USD 60 million (about Rs 400 crore) in One97 Communications, which runs Paytm. The transaction values the digital payment services and e-commerce firm at about USD 5 billion. When contacted, a Paytm spokesperson confirmed the development. The funds will be used for expanding payments and commerce businesses and for building and launching the payments bank, she added. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has earlier said its payments bank will become operational later this year. Interestingly, Mediatek is also an investor in Paytm's rival, Mobikwik in India. In May this year, Mediatek had participated in an estimated USD 50 million fund raising by Mobikwik. Alibaba-backed Paytm is looking at raising about USD 300 million (over Rs 2...
Alipay Could Acquire Stakes in German Banking Software Wirecard
CHINA

Alipay Could Acquire Stakes in German Banking Software Wirecard

Wirecard AG is negotiating with representatives of Alipay, a unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, about it taking a stake of up to 25 percent in the German banking software company, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Without citing its sources, the Bild am Sonntag weekly said Wirecard was in confidential talks with Alipay about it taking a stake of up to 25 percent, and possibly more later. A Wirecard spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics of the report but confirmed that the company was in strategic talks with various partners, without elaborating. A source familiar with the matter said Ant Financial, which operates the Alipay platform, was not talking to Wirecard about an investment. In December, the two companies agreed to a deal to provide mobile phone payment servi...
Uber Users Can Soon Pay For Rides Abroad Using Paytm & Alipay Wallet
News

Uber Users Can Soon Pay For Rides Abroad Using Paytm & Alipay Wallet

Digital payments firm Paytm will enable Uber users to pay for their rides in Indian currency while travelling abroad using its mobile wallet by month-end. Alibaba-backed Paytm will not charge any fees for conversion and the fares will be based on current forex rates. Currently, Indian users need a credit card to pay for Uber rides taken aboard. "We will enable users to pay for their rides in Indian currency while they travel abroad. The integration process is on and should be live by month-end... Users will be able to pay in Indian rupees based on current forex rates," Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said. Uber today announced a partnership with AliPay -- Alibabas online payment solution in China -- to enable users to use AliPays mobile wallet and pay in Chinese Renminbi (RMB) while...
First Store Chain in Japan to Use China’s Online Payment Solution Alipay
BUSINESS

First Store Chain in Japan to Use China’s Online Payment Solution Alipay

Japanese department store chain Kintetsu announced on Monday that it will introduce China's online payment solution Alipay in four of its department stores in Osaka so as to attract more Chinese tourists. According to Kintetsu, it would be the first department store chain in Japan to use Alipay, though the well-known Chinese online payment solution has already been used by the discount chain store Don Quijote and the consumer electronics retailer Yamada Denki in Japan since last year. "Alipay is a payment platform with over 400 million users in China. Chinese customers will be able to use the Alipay app on their cellphones to pay for the commodities they have bought in our department stores, which will be very convenient for them." said Aki Shokyoku, foreign business dire...