Parsing Ant Group’s Fortunes In Asia

One has to give Ant Group credit: Despite the bruising tech crackdown it has endured at home, it has not given up on its vision of creating a regional payments ecosystem. In fact, Ant arguably had the idea to link up the disparate markets of Southeast Asia via a proprietary digital payments network even before different countries in the region began to set up their own bilateral rails using QR codes.

In its headiest days of international expansion, flush with profits from its then lucrative consumer lending and wealth management businesses, Ant Group took strategic stakes in growing e-wallets across Asia. It did not limit its investments to the Asean countries, either. Kakao Pay and Paytm are two of its most strategic investments. As a result, Ant has a hand in the payments market of every major Southeast Asian economy as well as South Korea and India.