Alipay+, a wallet gateway under Ant International, has announced its plans to assist Kakao Pay in rolling out NFC payment for international transactions through its collaboration with Mastercard.
Through this move, Kakao Pay positions itself among the first Alipay+ mobile payment partners to launch secure Tap to Pay experiences when its users travel internationally. The partnership between Alipay+ and Mastercard will provide Kakao Pay users with the ability to make NFC payments at over 150 million Mastercard merchant locations globally, including Japan, Southeast Asia, the US, Europe, and Oceania, among others.
The Alipay+ NFC payment solution comes as an addition to Kakao Pay’s existing QR code and barcode-based cross-border payments, further improving the travel and shopping experience for users travelling abroad.
More payment methods when travelling abroad
NFC payments enable users to tap their NFC-enabled Android phone on a contactless POS terminal that accepts Mastercard. Through this, cross-border commerce is more optimised, as the solution minimises the need for carrying physical payments and ensures transaction security via improved authentication and encryption.
Currently, the new service is available on the latest versions of the Kakao Pay app and is set to be rolled out to the KakaoTalk app for Android later in September 2025, with a sequential launch planned for iOS in the future. According to Kakao Pay’s officials, similarly to how it serves its users in South Korea, the company now intends to provide the same benefits for customers travelling internationally, including convenient and rewarding payment experiences. Kakao Pay aims to position itself as a travel and payment platform that constantly accompanies users in their overseas trips and meets their needs.
Furthermore, Ant International highlighted that, by collaborating with Mastercard, it intends to expand digital payment acceptance to merchants worldwide. As part of their alliance, the two companies plan to build a more inclusive and interoperable global payment ecosystem.
