GLOBE TELECOM, Inc. eyes to make its cashless payment system available in countries where Chinese mobile payment platform Alipay (Ant Financial Services Group) is used.
Globe President and CEO Ernest L. Cu said they plan to make the GCash QR code system available in China this year, and other countries where Alipay is used.
“That’s on the road map. We’re still figuring out how long it’s going to take. Hopefully my goal is before end of year,” Mr. Cu told reporters on the sidelines of a Globe event on April 19.
“Not only China, the objective is to have it used in all Alipay-affiliated countries, that includes India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, maybe even Singapore with SingTel,” he added.
Globe last week announced that its financial technology arm, Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc, (Mynt) and Ant Financial Services Group have partnered for a QR code solution, which will enable merchants in the Philippines to accept payment from both local users (using GCash) and Chinese visitors (using Alipay) via a connection to GCash QR Code solution.
The service will be rolled out over the coming weeks across GCash’s merchant network.
Ant Financial earlier entered into a joint venture with Globe Telecom and Ayala Corp. to boost Mynt’s operations for merchant acquiring activities for Alipay in the Philippines.
Ant Financial was established by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Jack Ma but is being operated independently. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo
