Macau Pass S.A. announced in a statement last week that its mobile payment platform MPay is teaming up with Alipay+ (a payment system launched by Alipay) and will expand the coverage of its cross-border payment business to more than 40 countries in the third or fourth quarter of this year.
Macau Pass was acquired by Alibaba subsidiary AG-Tech Holdings last year. Alibaba is the owner of Alipay.
According to the statement, the countries include Australia, the 27- EU member states, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, the UAE, the UK and the US. The full list of countries as well as the exact date of implementation is yet to be released by Macau Pass.
The company also said that only Macau residents would be eligible to use this cross-border payment function of MPay, which could be done by switching to the Alipay+ payment code wherever merchants in the available countries have the Alipay+ logo displayed.
The statement quoted Sun Ho, chairman and CEO of Macau Pass as saying: “The change in consumer culture and modern technology goes hand in hand in the new era, and demand for electronic payments, especially cross-border mobile payments, is also growing rapidly.” According to Sun, the coverage expansion would make it easier for Macau residents to travel abroad, by solving payment issues encountered in the past while shopping overseas.
Sun said he believed that the service expansion would attract “more cross-border businesses and tourism growth opportunities for global merchants,” serving as a milestone of digital transformation of Macau’s service industry. He added that with the ease of use and increase in functionality, Macau’s digital payment solutions had proven competitive in the global market. In the statement, he also outlined the company’s future plan to expand its electronic payment and marketing technology services to more overseas markets.
This poster provided by Macau Pass last week introduces its global travel smart e-wallet for Macau residents.
