Mobile payment has become China’s new business card for going global. As an unofficial Chinese ambassador of the Belt and Road Initiative, Alipay and its partners are committed to leading global payment and outbound tourism and delivering benefits to the globe.
Currently, Alipay works with over 250 overseas financial institutions and supports payment in 27 currencies across over 220 countries and regions. Chinese consumers can buy overseas products from Europe on Tmall Global, and people around the globe can use their Alipay global accounts and even local accounts to buy everything they need on Chinese and overseas e-commerce platforms. Alipay has become an essential bridge connecting businesses worldwide.
In physical stores, a small blue QR code makes a variety of overseas tourism services available. At present, Alipay’s overseas offline payment service covers hundreds of thousands of overseas stores across over 40 countries and is used in almost all catering and entertainment settings. In addition, its tax refund service is available in more than 80 international airports.
Viktualienmarkt agricultural product market, a popular destination among visitors to Munich, Germany, has introduced a “Chinese guide” in Alipay APP to help Chinese tourists learn more about the traditional German business district. In Finland, Alipay is seen everywhere, and tourists are able to go on a wallet-free journey. Now, “你好(nihao) （how are you）”, “谢谢(xiexie) (thank you)” and “支付宝(zhifubao) (Alipay)” have become must-learn Chinese phrases for many global merchants to attract Chinese visitors.
Meanwhile, Alipay is also pushing for financial inclusion. It is helping developing countries to leapfrog over the stage of bank cards directly to mobile finance through digital technologies.
China’s practice in digitalized financial inclusion has won worldwide attention, and countries and regions along the Belt and Road hope to introduce “China mode” in their own countries. Since 2015, Ant Financial has cooperated with fintech enterprises in Southeast Asian countries, empowering and providing services to local areas through international technology transfer, which supports the development of local partners in a comprehensive way. In addition, Alipay has launched its localized versions in nine countries along the Belt and Road. More importantly, as a major breakthrough in the globalization of Chinese internet companies in the era of the digital economy, the international technology transfer of Ant Financial is also an active move to enhance China’s engagement in global governance.
By promoting the e-commerce services and digitalized and inclusive financial services to go global and benefit local users, Alibaba and Ant Financial, as key representatives of Chinese internet companies, have brought positive energy to advance the global economy and facilitate international exchange and expand China’s influence in the global economy.