Ant Group Brings Alipay+ to the Philippines with Three New Mobile Wallets, AlipayHK, Kakao Pay and Touch ‘n Go eWallet
5.9.2023 07:58:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
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.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230904840228/en/
Mactan-Cebu International Airport, which saw 219% increase in passengers in the 1H of 2023, have integrated Alipay+ across 90% of its merchants (Photo: Business Wire)
The acceptance of three new mobile wallets, via Alipay+, comes as travellers return to the Philippines. According to the Department of Tourism (DOT), more than 3 million tourists have visited the Philippines from January 1 to July 19, 2023, reflecting continued robust recovery. The DOT also shared that inbound tourism receipts from January 1 to June 30, 2023, are more than 500% higher than the same period last year1. South Koreans top the list of international visitors to the Philippines, while Malaysia ranks in the top 102.
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.
Athanasios Titonis, Aboitiz InfraCapital Chief Executive Officer assigned to MCIA, said: “At MCIA, we have always placed utmost importance on providing convenience and ease of travel through seamless processes and world-class services and amenities. The integration of Alipay+ gives our passengers that exceptional convenience and more payment options when they travel through MCIA.”
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. With its strategic location and world-class facilities, MCIA aims to establish itself as the main tourism gateway of the country with exceptional travel experience, connecting the world to the Philippines. To date, MCIA is the first and only airport in the Philippines to receive the Airport Customer Experience (ACX) accreditation from the Airports Council International.
Commenting on this new development, 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.
About Mactan-Cebu International Airport
Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) is the second largest airport in the Philippines. It serves over 11 million passengers annually, making it the second busiest airline hub in the country. MCIA is operated by a Filipino-led private consortium between Aboitiz InfraCapital (AIC), GMR Group of India, and Megawide Construction Corporation (MCC), under a concession agreement with the Philippine Government. With its strategic location and world-class facilities, MCIA aims to establish itself as the main tourism gateway of the country with exceptional travel experience, connecting the world to the Philippines. MCIA is accredited for the Airport Customer Experience (ACX) and the Airport Health Accreditation (AHA) by the Airports Council International.
About Ant Group
Ant Group aims to create the infrastructure and platform to support the digital transformation of the service industry. It strives to enable all consumers and small and micro businesses to have equal access to financial and other services that are inclusive, green and sustainable.
Ant Group is the owner and operator of Alipay, the leading digital payment platform in China serving hundreds of millions of users, and connecting them with merchants and partner financial institutions that offer inclusive financial services and digital daily life services such as food delivery, transport, entertainment, and healthcare.
Ant Group has further introduced Alipay+, which provides global cross-border mobile payments and marketing solutions that connect merchant partners, especially small and medium-sized businesses, with mobile payments and other payment methods, for them to better serve their users and customers from all over the world.
About Alipay+
Alipay+ offers unified global mobile payment and marketing solutions that connect merchants with multiple e-wallets and payment methods from different countries and regions by collaborating with global partners. Consumers can conveniently use their preferred local payment methods while transacting seamlessly in a different market and be able to enjoy marketing offers by the merchants through Alipay+. Alipay+ is developed by Ant Group, the owner and operator of Alipay, one of the world’s leading digital open platforms.
1 Manila Bulletin (19 July 2023): PH int’l tourists breach 3M mark, revenues hit P212B
2 Department of Tourism: Tourism demand statistics 2023
3 Department of Tourism: Visitor arrivals: January – December 2019
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230904840228/en/
Contact information
Scott Lai
scott.lai@antgroup.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
TestMu AI (Formerly LambdaTest) Recognized in Independent Research on Autonomous Testing Platforms, Q4 20252.2.2026 19:24:00 EET | Press release
TestMu AI (formerly known as LambdaTest), the world’s first full-stack Agentic Quality Engineering platform, today announced its inclusion in The Forrester Wave™: Autonomous Testing Platforms, Q4 2025, an independent research report evaluating vendors in the autonomous testing market. The report identifies TestMu AI as a cloud-based platform for unified test orchestration and execution. It notes the platform's capabilities in cross-browser testing, real device cloud, and AI-driven automation. Specifically, the research cites TestMu AI’s testing of AI systems across dimensions, providing metrics for accuracy, intent recognition, and hallucination detection with configurable thresholds. Additionally, the report recognizes TestMu AI’s AI-powered test data generation, citing its support for Large Language Models (LLMs), multimodal inputs, and compliance-aligned workflows. The report also noted the company's strong community strategy and customers praise its responsive customer support, whi
Current Chemicals Launches as Independent Specialty Materials Manufacturer, Building on 75-Year GE Legacy with Backing from Momentum Global Ventures2.2.2026 18:04:00 EET | Press release
Today marks the debut of Current Chemicals, Inc. (CCI) as a fully independent U.S.-based specialty materials manufacturer. Backed by strategic investor Momentum Global Ventures, CCI is charting a bold new path as a trusted partner for materials innovation, custom chemistry, and U.S.-based downstream manufacturing of rare earths and critical materials. The partnership between U.S.-based CCI and Netherlands-based Momentum Global Ventures reflects a strengthening transatlantic alliance at a pivotal moment for global supply chains. This partnership underscores a shared commitment to secure, reliable, and innovation-driven materials infrastructure. Originally the chemical division of GE Lighting, the team behind CCI has served as the quiet force behind groundbreaking technologies for more than 75 years, developing processes and manufacturing advanced materials for displays, lighting, energy storage, and more. As an independent company, CCI is poised to expand its impact across industries de
Laserfiche’s Taylor Grosso Honored as 2026 CRN® Channel Chief2.2.2026 17:00:00 EET | Press release
Laserfiche — the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management — announced today that CRN® — a brand of The Channel Company — has selected Taylor Grosso, senior director, channel, Americas, as a 2026 CRN® Channel Chief. This annual recognition celebrates IT vendor and distribution executives who are shaping channel strategy and driving innovation and partnership across the industry. Grosso oversees Laserfiche’s Americas channel sales team, including the U.S., Canada, and Latin America, focusing on empowering Laserfiche Solution Providers to stay competitive as the market evolves. As more organizations seek out AI-powered tools to enhance productivity, Grosso prepares partners with the resources they need to quickly learn and sell Laserfiche’s industry-leading AI-powered document management solutions. By working closely with partners on building targeted business plans, Grosso and his team enable faster customer adoption of AI while driving revenue growth. “Over the past year,
Conga Completes Acquisition of PROS B2B Business2.2.2026 16:55:00 EET | Press release
Conga, a leader for AI-powered innovation in configure, price, quote (CPQ), contract lifecycle management (CLM), and document automation, today announced it has completed the acquisition of the B2B business of PROS Holdings, Inc (“PROS”) from certain investment funds affiliated with Thoma Bravo, the world’s largest software-focused investment firm. This transaction unites two industry leaders to help enterprises maximize revenue, reduce risk, and improve profitability. By bringing together AI-driven pricing optimization, configuration, quoting, and contracting capabilities, the combined company creates a differentiated enterprise platform that connects the commerce chain and enables end-to-end revenue orchestration from price to signature. The expanded Conga leadership team will continue to be led by CEO Dave Osborne. “To operate as connected, intelligent businesses, enterprises need a commerce chain that keeps everyone moving in the same direction,” said Osborne. “By bringing Conga an
Arcesium Acquires Limina to Deliver a Unified Front-to-Back Investment Platform2.2.2026 16:00:00 EET | Press release
Arcesium, a leading global financial technology provider to the investment industry, today announces its acquisition of Stockholm-based portfolio and order management (P/OMS) systems provider, Limina, creating a full front-to-back operating platform tailored to the unique needs of asset managers, hedge funds and asset owners. Through the integration of Limina’s P/OMS with Arcesium’s middle- and back-office solutions, the combined offering will be designed to eliminate legacy fragmentation and connect siloed data, providing investment managers with the speed and insight they need to operate intelligently across asset classes and global markets. The entire Limina team will join Arcesium and play a key role in ongoing product development, advancing Arcesium’s commitment to optimizing the pre- and post -investment journey for the world’s most sophisticated financial firms. Limina CEO, Kristoffer Fürst, will join Arcesium, reporting to Arcesium President, Product and Technology, Bryan Dough
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom