Ant Group, the official payment partner for the Hangzhou Asian Games, announced that Alipay had completed the support for overseas users to use mobile payment services in China.

Athletes and tourists from around the world can now enjoy various convenient services across the country using Alipay, including shopping, hailing a taxi, taking the subway, and visiting tourist attractions.

To use these services, users must download the Alipay app, click “Register Account”, and select the “International Version”. After completing the registration, users can click on “Add Now” to enter the card binding page and follow the prompts to complete the card binding operation.

Alipay now supports international card organizations such as Visa, Mastercard, and Discover Global Network (including Diners Club). Furthermore, the usage of Alipay after binding an international card is no different from using a domestic bank card, supporting both QR code payment and payment code payment.

Similarly, Tencent announced a deepened cooperation with international card organizations such as Visa, Discover Global Network (including Diners Club), JCB, and Mastercard.

This collaboration aims to systematically open up WeChat Pay’s merchant network in various cities in China. Inbound individuals can activate WeChat Pay by using their passport, Hong Kong and Macau Residents Travel Permit (Home Return Permit), Taiwan Residents Travel Permit (Taiwan Compatriot Permit), Hong Kong and Macau Residents Residence Permit, Taiwan Residents Residence Permit, and Foreign Permanent Resident ID.

After binding an international bank card, they can conveniently consume at millions of small and medium-sized merchants.

These developments mark a significant step towards making mobile payments more accessible to foreigners in China, providing them the same convenience that local residents enjoy. It is expected to significantly enhance the experience of foreign visitors in China, especially in the context of the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games.

He also said that in the next step, the People’s Bank of China will continue to steadily promote the pilot research and development of eCNY in accordance with the deployment of the national 14th five-year plan, further deepening the pilot use of digital RMB in retail transactions, lifestyle payment, government services, and other scenarios.

The weekly active users in the first week of 2022 increased to 15.9 million from 1.6 million a week earlier, according to data from QuestMobile.

eCNY is the legal digital currency issued by People’s Bank of China, which is mainly used for cash in circulation. It is operated by designated operating institutions and exchanged to the public.

The currency is paid in electronic form, and the value is the same as that of RMB banknotes and coins. Digital RMB is currently issued by the people’s Bank of China on a small-scale pilot basis and is in the internal closed pilot test stage. There is no timetable for its formal launch.

At present, eCNY is only piloted in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, Dalian, and Winter Olympic Games scenes (Beijing and Zhangjiakou); and, other regions cannot register temporarily.

China’s eCNY adopts dual offline technology. As long as DC/EP digital wallet is installed on the mobile phones of both parties, eCNY can be used to complete transfer even without network and bank account.

According to the data of several mainstream mobile app stores such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, the total download of eCNY app has exceeded 20 million times, nearly doubling that of 10 days ago.

During the Winter Olympics, consumers can choose eCNY app or hardware wallet based on their own habits and preferences. The eCNY app can not only read the devices loaded with the eCNY hardware wallets, but also set the payment password, top up, balance and transaction details query, cash out, etc.

The number of eCNY App has already onboarded 49 merchants, including shopping, travel, lifestyle, tourism, and other major categories, including Jingdong, Meituan, Ele.me, Tmall Supermarket, Didi, iQiyi, Tencent Video, Baidu and other Internet businesses, as well as SF Express, Online State Grid (for electricity payment), Sinopec, China Telecom, etc.

Top 10 Smart City Forecast in China 2022-2025

UnionPay Flash supports the top-up payment of QCoin, QQ Music, and Tencent Videos. WeChat Mini Programs will gradually support Flash Pay, being in beta test since 22 September.

On October 2nd, Alipay announced the progress in promoting interconnection with China UnionPay. it has opened online payment scenes to the UnionPay Flash app, covering the first batch of 85% Taobao merchants.

For offline, it has also implemented QR code scanning and mutual recognition with UnionPay Flash payment in multiple cities and plans to cover all cities in China by March 2022.

UnionPay, also known as China UnionPay or by its abbreviation, CUP or UPI internationally, is a Chinese financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card scheme in mainland China.

Founded on 26 March 2002, China UnionPay is an association for China’s banking card industry, operating under the approval of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC, central bank of China).

It is also an electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS) network, and the only interbank network in China that links all the automatic teller machine (ATMs) of all banks throughout the country.

In 2015, UnionPay overtook Visa and Mastercard in a total amount of value of payment transactions made by customers and became the largest card payment processing organization (debit and credit cards combined) in the world after the two.

China’s 3rd-party payment market 2021-2025e: mobile vs. internet

The Greater Bay Area is home to more top brands than any other region in China with 134 brands represented in the ranking.

The banking sector dominates with 85 brands accounting for 22% of total brand value in ranking, with ICBC once again crowned China’s most valuable brand.

Leading fight against health emergency, pharma sector sees greatest brand value increase, up staggering 123%. Leading the way as the sector’s most valuable brand is Sinopharm, which has recorded a 58% brand value increase to US$3.2 billion.

Retail is the second most valuable sector – with 17 brands featuring and accounting for 10% of the total brand value – and also the second-fastest-growing sector, recording a cumulative brand value growth of 54%.

The top four Chinese e-commerce brands – Taobao, Tmall, Alibaba.com, and JD.com – have all seen significant brand value growth. Taobao (brand value US$53.3 billion) and Tmall (brand value US$49.2 billion) have entered the top 10 for the first time following 44% and 60% brand value increases, respectively.

Alibaba.com’s brand value has been boosted by 108% to US$39.2 billion, simultaneously propelling the brand from 22nd to 13th – a result of a huge spike in demand. JD.com enjoyed an 82% brand value increase to US$23.5 billion, following a 30% rise in its annual shopper count.

Pinduoduo is the fastest growing brand in China, up 148% to US$6.3 billion and jumping 60 places in the ranking to 63rd. Read about Pinduoduo’s road to brand upgrade.

Perseverance of brands in investment and infrastructure development pays off – solid performances across real estate and engineering & construction sectors.

Media sector surges 33%.

• WeChat is China’s and the world’s strongest brand with a top score of 95.4 out of 100 and AAA+ brand strength rating.
• TikTok/Douyin (brand value US$18.7 billion), has taken the 24th spot as the highest new entrant.
• Bilibili up 106% to US$1.9 billion

Top 500 Chinese Brands in 2021

Members can download the list here (Excel; annual and CIW Premium subscribers).

Top Global Brands 2021

US and Chinese brands account for two-thirds of the total brand value of the world’s 500 most valuable brands, according to the latest report by Brand Finance – a brand valuation consultancy.

US brands boast a cumulative brand value of a staggering US$3.3 trillion, equating to 46% of the total brand value in the ranking. Chinese brands’ total brand value is US$1.4 trillion, equating to 20%.

Apple has overtaken Amazon and Google to reclaim the title of the world’s most valuable brand for the first time since 2016 with an impressive 87% brand value increase to US$263.4 billion and.

• Tesla leaves traditional auto marques behind with the fastest brand value growth in ranking, up 158%
  CBS is the fasting-falling brand in ranking, down 49%
• Airline and aerospace sectors account for 6 out of 10 fastest-falling brands in the ranking
• Hospitality suffers from travel and dining restrictions, as Marriott and Airbnb check out from ranking and Starbucks, McDonald’s, and KFC see brand values drop
• Mastercard’s Ajay Banga best among top 100 CEOs in Brand Finance Brand Guardianship Index 2021

Top 100 best Chinese brands, led by Alibaba and Tencent

Lufax, a financial platform headquartered in Shanghai, ranked second with a value of 270 billion yuan, and East Money ranked third with a value of 221.5 billion yuan, according to Hurun China Top 10 Most Valuable Fintech Companies 2020 released last week.

Lufax is backed by major internet companies, such as Ant Group, WeBank and Tencent Licaitong.

JD.com’s affiliated JD Digital and WeBank ranked fourth with a value of 200 billion yuan.

• Ant Group
• Lufax
• East Money
• JD Digits
• WeBank (Tencent has an estimated 30 percent ownership share)
• Hundsun
• Hithink RoyalFlush
• Suning Finance
• ZhongAn (online-only insurance company)

Some highlights about the Top 10:

• The top ten fintech enterprises mainly cover financial management, microloans, payment, Internet financial information services, and other fields.
• Among the top ten companies, 2 are mainly B2B business and 8 are B2C business
• 7 of the top ten companies are in the Yangtze River Delta region, including three in Hangzhou and Shanghai and one in Nanjing; two in Shenzhen and one in Beijing
• Among the top 10 companies, 5 are public listed, 3 are in the process of IPO, and 2 are private

Financial services is the industry that has been transformed by unicorns. The traditional financial service industry is greatly influenced by these technology enterprises. For example, the market value of ICBC is 1.8 trillion yuan, and the market value of Ping An of China is 1.5 trillion yuan, which has been surpassed by Ant Group.

There are 63 fintech unicorn enterprises globally, including 21 in the United States, with a total value of $84 billion, and 18 in China, with a total value of US$239 billion.

Chinese unicorn overview 2020

Its revenues come mainly from the growth of digital financial technology platform revenue.

Its gross profit was 69.549 billion yuan (US$10.41 billion), a year-on-year increase of 74.28%; and, the overall gross profit margin increased to 58.84% from 48.13% in the same period last year.

Ant Group plans concurrent initial public offering IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR board (“SSE STAR” market) and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “SEHK”).

Credit Suisse expects Ant’s revenue to grow at 34% CAGR from 2019-2022e with digital fintech services as the key driver. It projects non-IFRS net profit to grow at 54% 2019-2022E CAGR.

S&P Global: Bank disruptors doubling down on mobile payments in China

The listings will help the company accelerate its goal of digitizing the service industry in China and driving domestic demand, as well as position the company to develop global markets with partners and expand investment in technology and innovation.

The innovative measures implemented by SSE STAR market and the SEHK have opened the doors for global investors to access leading edge technology companies from the most dynamic economies in the world and for those companies to have greater access to the capital markets. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to play a part in this development

said Eric Jing, Executive Chairman of Ant Group.

Ant Group aims to create the infrastructure and platform to support the digital transformation of the service industry.

Becoming a public company will enhance transparency to our stakeholders, including customers, business partners, employees, shareholders and regulators. Through our commitment to serving the under-served, we make it possible for the whole of society to share our growth

Mr. Jing said.

China’s mainland stock markets rose slightly in the morning session on 21 July 2020 following the news while shares related to Ant Group soared.

Alibaba-backed Ant Group is to raise US$10 billion in the Hong Kong IPO and the company could be valued at US$200 billion.

Ant Financial, the previously used company name of Ant Group, was created in 2014 to encompass Alipay and Alibaba’s bigger push into fintech. In 2018, Alibaba bought a 33% stake in Ant Financial. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, still holds the controlling stake in Ant Group.

The Ant Group first announced its share structure in 2013, clearly announcing that the employee stock ownership would reach 40%. On July 13, 2020, Alibaba released its fiscal year 2020 report, which shows that Ma Yun holds about 8.8% of the shares in Ant Group and has 50% voting rights.

At present, Alibaba holds 33% of the shares of Ant Group, Jun Han and Jun Ao hold 50% of the shares of ant group. Jun Han belongs to Ma Yun and employees of Alibaba and Ant Group, and Jun Ao is part of Alibaba partnership. As the employees are still the largest shareholders of Ant Group, this also triggered speculation about how many multimillionaires and billionaires will be born after the IPO.

Check out Ant Group Performance here.