Thunes expands into China

Singapore-based cross-border payments provider Thunes has announced plans to expand its operations in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau.

Thunes will intensify its focus on building local partnerships with local digital payment players to enable businesses and consumers to make payments to and from China, supporting business payments, global collections, and virtual accounts setup.

The company will also pilot its virtual account service to connect China-based payment service providers to Indonesia ecommerce buyers. The ability to issue virtual bank accounts makes it easier for Chinese cross-border sellers to join Southeast Asia marketplaces, and allow them to receive money in their local currency from buyers via local bank transfers, according to the company. Thunes’ goal is to make the cross-border payments experience as easy as making a local payment.

China’s cross-border ecommerce exports surged 46.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021 to USD 63.83 billion, according to ffnews.com. The press release mentioned that more than 40% of Chinese cross-border ecommerce companies showed their business on Amazon and Alibaba / AliExpress, with Shopee and Lazada increasingly used by merchants targeting Southeast Asian markets.

For more information about Thunes, please check out the company profile in The Paypers Company Database.