Alipay, China’s leading mobile payments platform, will bear the expense from unexpected losses that it incurred on Thursday, when a system error gave a 20 per cent discount to an undisclosed number of user transactions. The error, which was caused by a back-end misconfiguration in the app’s promotional campaign, applied an “immediate deduction” to the … Read more
The easing of visa restrictions, and other measures, have helped drive an 86 per cent increase in visitor numbers in the first 11 months of the year compared with the same period in 2023, according to the National Immigration Administration. But the 29 million trips from overseas recorded to the end of November 2024 is … Read more
Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, said it had no immediate plans to revive its initial public offering (IPO), dispelling market speculation it would soon go public. The Chinese company shocked investors in November 2020 by cancelling its US$39.7 billion IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai less than 48 hours before market … Read more
Ant Group, the fintech giant affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding, is splitting the business group of its mobile payment platform Alipay into two units, in its latest corporate restructuring move to drive new growth. The company will establish the Digital Payment Business Group and Alipay Business Group, and adopt a “rotating presidential system” for the … Read more
A Chinese fund manager has touted its fund’s cryptocurrency exposure in an effort to draw investors amid a historic bitcoin boom, even as Beijing maintains a hostile stance towards the digital assets. A fund advertisement that read “Cryptocurrencies soaring, start investing with 10 yuan” was spotted on Alipay, Chinese fintech giant Ant Group’s mobile wallet … Read more
Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group Holding, gave a rare public speech at the 20th anniversary of the company’s fintech affiliate Ant Group, saying he had faith in the “next 20 years of Ant” and expects “more miracles”, according to Chinese media reports and people who were there. Ma’s attendance at the evening event … Read more
Ant International reported a robust growth across its core business segments following a spin-off in March as its mainstay cross-border mobile payment platform Alipay+ connects more consumers and merchants worldwide. The Singapore-based overseas unit of Ant Group said its four business pillars – Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst and Embedded Finance – have delivered strong performance over … Read more
Alibaba Group Holding has won the sponsorship for the 2025 Spring Festival Gala show, China’s most-watched event of the year, as the e-commerce giant reaches out to consumers to regain growth momentum. The Hangzhou-based company signed a deal with China Media Group (CMG), which owns state broadcaster China Central Television, to be the “exclusive e-commerce … Read more
Singapore-headquartered Ant International said it has developed an AI model that predicts currency exchange rates on an hourly basis for both inbound and outbound transactions, which would help businesses reduce transaction costs and better allocate resources, the company said in a statement on Thursday. “Integration of AI into the processing of cross-border transactions is of … Read more
Tokenisation could drive real-time cross-border payments, Ant Group CEO Eric Jing Xiandong told an audience at Hong Kong FinTech Week on Monday, a topic he elaborated on while extolling the progress that Alipay has made in the city. “With tokenised deposits, that’s a really, really, really huge value for cross-border payments,” Jing said in a … Read more
