Tencent and Alibaba compete on cross-border payments
Hong Kong-listed Tencent, the owner of popular Chinese messaging app WeChat, has moved to expand its global online payments offering after it led a $13m funding round for Australian international payments software firm Airwallex. This follows rival Alibaba's $1.2bn bid to take over MoneyGram, a money-transfer provider based in Dallas, Texas. Tencent's Tenpay is currently the second largest digital payment platform in China, behind Alibaba-owned Alipay.
Handout photo of Jack Zhang, the co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong-Australian financial technology start-up Airwallex. The company has just received a pre-Series A investment from Shanghai-based venture capital firm Gobi Partners, which is the first investment manager of the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. SCMP Pictures (Handout)