Alipay+ Enables 4 Asian Digital Wallets in South Korea

Digital payments platform Alipay+ has partnered with Asian mobile payment providers to enable the use of four digital wallets in South Korea.

With these integrations with Alipay+, which is developed by Ant Group, travelers can use the eWallets AlipayHK (Hong Kong), GCash (the Philippines), Touch ‘n Go (Malaysia) and TrueMoney (Thailand) to pay at 120,000 merchants in South Korea, using their local mobile payment apps, according to a Monday (Sept. 26) press release.

“It is our pleasure to connect merchants in Korea with a variety of mobile payment methods, enabling Asian tourists to pay with convenience and simplicity in Korea using their preferred home [eWallets],” Danny Chung, general manager of Ant Group Korea, Australia and New Zealand, said in the release.

As this is rolled out, it will first cover payments for tourist activities like taxi rides, duty-free shops, convenience stores, and food and beverage chains, according to the press release.

“As the theme of this year’s World Tourism Day is Rethinking Tourism, Alipay+ has been striving to achieve the same goal by supporting a cashless and smart travel experience,” Chung said in the release. “Through innovation and digitalization, we hope Alipay+ can play its role in the transformation of tourism towards a crucial pillar of development.”

The announcement comes about a month after Alipay+ partnered with cross-border payments company Thunes to enable merchants in Europe to accept the mobile wallets that are most popular among Asian consumers.

Read more: Thunes, Alipay+ Partner to Ease Acceptance of Mobile Wallets in Europe

With this partnership, European merchants will be able to accept payments both online and in-store from the mobile wallets Alipay, Boost, GCash, KakaoPay, Rabbit LINE Pay, Touch ‘n Go and TrueMoney.

As PYMNTS reported in January, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has traditionally been considered a leader in digital payments and is expected to comprise half of the world’s noncash transactions by 2025.

Read more: The Explosive Growth of Mobile Payments for Cross-Border Transactions

One major contributor to this growth is the surging popularity of mobile commerce, according to the PYMNTS and Citcon collaboration, “Cross-Border Retail Payments Tracker.”