Ant Group brings Alipay+ to the Philippines with three new mobile wallets
Ant Group, the operator of Alipay+, the global cross-border digital payments and marketing solution, today announced that a total of four mobile wallets are now accepted in the Philippines. These include AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), Kakao Pay (South Korea), Touch ‘n Go eWallet (Malaysia) and Alipay (Chinese mainland), which has been accepted by Filipino merchants since 2017.
This enables travellers from these regions to enjoy a cashless experience, using just their home mobile wallets to make payment, improving the travel experience as digital payment options like mobile wallets become the norm for day-to-day transactions.
The acceptance of three new mobile wallets, via Alipay+, comes as travellers return to the Philippines.
Alipay+ is currently accepted by merchants in Manila and Cebu, the top two most visited cities in the Philippines pre-pandemic in 20193. In the first half of 2023, Mactan-Cebu International Airport saw a 219% increase in passengers compared to the same period last year. In order to cater to the new expectations of digital-first travellers, the airport has integrated Alipay+ across 90% of its merchants, ensuring that tourists can enjoy a digitally-enhanced cashless experience from the moment they arrive in Cebu.
Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) is the second largest airport in the Philippines with over 11 million passengers annually, making it the second busiest airport in the country.
Dr. Cherry Huang, General Manager of Alipay+ Offline Merchant Services at Ant Group, said:
“Philippines and its many islands, such as Cebu, have long been a favourite destination for Asian travellers and we look forward to working with our local partners to enhance their travel experience. We believe that digital adoption and solutions will shape travellers’ expectations, particularly in the way the engage travel-related businesses, from airports and hospitality to F&B and retail stores. Our focus now is to work with more partners to onboard more merchants with Alipay+ across the Philippines, particularly local small businesses, and promote digital travel and travel recovery.”
Introduced by Ant Group in 2020, Alipay+ aims to enable local businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, to process a wide range of mobile payment methods and reach more than 1.4 billion regional and global consumers, through one-time integration and simple technical adaption. In addition to the Philippines, Alipay+ is also widely accepted in destinations including the Chinese mainland, Macao SAR, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and South Korea among others.