Bitcoin-Friendly Stripe Strikes Major FinTech Deal with China’s Alipay, WeChat
Silicon Valley startup Stripe has just announced a significant partnership with Chinese FinTech payments giants Alipay and WeChat Pay. The move enables merchants on its platform to receive money from hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers.
In an announcement today, Stripe has lifted the lid on a new ‘global’ partnership with Alipay and WeChat pay, two massively popular FinTech payments giants that see 92% of an estimated billion-plus Chinese population using digital payments in the country.
The integration will now enable all Stripe merchants in over 25 countries make money from Chinese consumers. Alipay, the payments platform of Ant Financial – the financial arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba has over 500 million users on its platform. WeChat Pay, the digital payments platform of WeChat – China’s most popular messaging app – has over 600 million users. The two firms were responsible for handling near $3 trillion in 2016, according to a UN report .
The integration coincides with the payments processor’s official launch in Hong Kong. Local users with USD-denominated bank accounts will receive payments made out in USD, without any loss in fees for currency conversion.
While the new partnerships do not help Stripe make an entry into China, the world’s largest retail FinTech market, it will directly connect China’s ever-expanding cashless consumer base to hundreds of thousands of Stripe-powered businesses and merchants around the world.
San Francisco-based Stripe is among the best-funded digital payments startups in the world. Raising over $450 million to date, the company is valued at $9 billion . Popular among online merchants for its ease of use, Stripe charges a fee on each payment transaction processed through its platform.
In the United States, Stripe has notably enabled merchants to accept Bitcoin payments both domestically and internationally. First launched in early 2015, the integration came following a near-year of testing. “Stripe charges just 0.8% per successful Bitcoin transaction, capped at $5. There are no other fees,” the company added.
Featured image from Bruce Damonte .
