In the days before China’s tech crackdown humbled the country’s largest platform companies, Ant Group seemed intent on building its own cross-border payments ecosystem in Southeast Asia. The idea, though never explicitly stated, was to build a regional payments rail that could replicate at least some of the success of Alipay’s dominant domestic system.
The Chinese fintech giant went on a shopping spree that took it to nearly every East Asian country, making strategic investments in one e-wallet after the next. This strategy gave Ant stakes in some of the most successful fintechs in the region, with the Philippines’ GCash perhaps the most prominent Ant-backed success story. Ant even invested in Korea’s Kakao Pay, showing its ambitions went beyond the emerging markets of Southeast Asia.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.