Alibaba Group’s Ant Group will become the majority owner of Singapore-based payments platform 2C2P as part of a partnership, according to an announcement made by the companies on Monday.
“Through this complementary partnership with Ant Group, 2C2P will be connected to a much larger merchant base and be well-positioned to advance our international expansion strategy,” Aung Kyaw Moe, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of 2C2P, commented in a statement.
By integrating Alipay+ with 2C2P’s platform, Ant will allow merchants in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas to accept payments through their Alipay+ services. Ant has invested in and partnered with fintech companies in Southeast Asia over the years, and it recently appointed a regional general manager to increase growth outside of China.
Involvement with Digital Yuan
Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba’s Ant Group revealed last year that they were working with the People’s Bank of China to develop a digital currency. The report stated that the Ant Group has been involved in the project since 2017 and that MYbank was an intermediary to distribute the digital yuan.
Ant’s mobile app development platform, mPaaS, has been used by the country’s digital currency institute since June 2019. Additionally, the fintech giant demonstrated its involvement in the central bank digital currency (CBDC) project by launching the digital yuan in parts of China earlier this year, following a trial last year.
Meanwhile, Tencent’s involvement with the digital yuan project began in February 2018. Moreover, it formed an expert team to help with the development process.
The Chinese central bank was tapping other local technology for their involvement in the digital currency project, which will ensure distribution and mass adoption. JD.com, a rival of Alibaba, revealed that it had paid salaries of some employees in digital yuan after its partnership deal with the PBoC since September 2020.
