Some of these partnering e-wallets include TrueMoney (Thailand), Touch'n Go eWallet (Malaysia), AlipayHK, and GCash (the Philippines). The partnership allows users of these e-wallets to pay at over 120,000 merchants using their local mobile payment apps when travelling in South Korea. The incipient phase of the merchant roll-out focuses on popular tourist activities such as paying for duty-free shopping, taxis, paying at food and beverage chains and convenience stores.
Alipay+ encompasses a suite of global cross-border digital payments and marketing systems that enable businesses to process a wide range of mobile payment methods while better serving regional and global consumers through simple technical adaption.
The partnership comes in the context of a rebound in international travel across Asia. According to the official press release, South Korea lifted the requirement for pre-travel Covid-19 tests for inbound travellers, following a decision to remove all quarantine requirements for foreign arrivals regardless of vaccination status.
Moreover, statistics from the Korea Tourism Organisation revealed that more than 800,000 foreign tourists visited South Korea during the first half of 2022, which represents a 92.8% increase when compared to the same period in 2021. Tourists from ASEAN countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines made up 30.3% of the total visits.
In August 2022, Thunes partnered with Alipay+ in order to allow the former’s Europe-based customers and merchants to accept Asia’s most popular wallets. These include Thailand’s Rabbit LINE Pay and TrueMoney, China’s Alipay, KakaoPay from South Korea, Philippines’ GCash and Touch ’n Go and Boost from Malaysia.
The partnership will expand the geographical coverage of the local payment methods available via Thunes, as the company already offers a range of alternative payment methods (APMs) popular with customers in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The collaboration allowed merchants to engage with shoppers through their favourite digital payment tools both online and in-store and helped speed up the digitalisation and globalisation of their business operations.
In July 2022, Qatar National Bank (QNB), an important financial institution in the MENA region has announced the official launch of payment methods WeChat Pay and AliPay+. The partnership between QNB and Chinese-based WeChat Pay and AliPay+ aims to enable millions of customers to complete their transactions safely, securely, and easily.
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