Ant targets two billion users

Ant Financial aims to sign up two billion users over the next ten years as it expands its fintech businesses which include digital payments, wealth management, financing, insurance and credit reporting. The target represents a 250% increase on its current user base of 577 million.

Aim big, they say. Ant Financial did just that.

The Alibaba affiliate that operates the digital payments platform Alipay, Ant Financial said this week it will sign up 2 billion users in 10 years for the pipeline of its fintech businesses. Those include digital payments, wealth management, financing, insurance, and credit reporting.

That’s a 250% jump from the company’s current 577 million global user base, the company said at Alibaba Group’s Investor Day yesterday.

The parent company also projected a 48% increase in revenue for the fiscal year ending in March 2017, compared to 33% revenue increase prior fiscal year, attributed mainly to recent acquisitions.

On the payments side, Alipay now has 451 million annual active users, with an average of 153 million daily transactions, the company said.

As for Ant Financial, the long-term goal to expand its borders has been on the roadmap for a while. The company now seems on track to fulfill Alibaba CEO Jack Ma’s vision:

If we want to be a global company, 50% of our revenues should be outside China. Now less than 5% of the businesses from us are outside of China.

Earlier this year, Ant brought in what was labeled as the largest private tech raise ever, securing $4.5 billion on a $60 billion valuation.