Focusing on commerce and mobile shopping led to a 56% year-over-year revenue jump for Ant Financial’s parent company Alibaba, and the company is going to keep that focus as it moves forward into the U.S. market.
Alibaba’s revenue grew to about $7.4 billion, the company reported during its earnings yesterday, mainly due to the tight grip the company is keeping on the shopping habits of its Chinese consumers.
With its move into the U .S., Ant Financial will be keeping this drive on commerce and payments by focusing its attention on merchant partnerships and enabling its Alipay solution at the point-of-sale for as many merchants as it can.
“Our focus has been on working with the right providers, the right advisors, for those Chinese consumers that want to come to the U.S. and use Alipay at the point of sale,” Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America told Bank Innovation.
The company is not looking to build another mobile wallet for U.S. consumers, unless “there’s a change in customer behavior, a gap we can fill,” according to Badran, but will continue to keep its eye on its engaged Chinese user base.
Alipay has 520 million users, and most of those customers visit the app an average of 8 to 10 times a day, according to Badran.
For its Chinese users visiting the U.S., the company has closed partnerships and deals with U.S. companies, most recently including First Data and Stripe for the merchant POS.
“Our primary focus is rolling out acceptance of the POS. So far we feel like our strategy is executing pretty well,” said Badran, regarding Alipay’s U.S. approach.
The company will also continue to look at “new technologies,” said Badran, including biometrics (managed with EyeVerify’s technology suite, an iris authentication company Ant Financial acquired in 2016).
Of course, the company’s U.S. strategy also includes the company’s MoneyGram acquisition, which Ant Financial is in the middle of closing despite rival bids, security issues, and the recent demand from the Bank of China that online payment solutions such as Alipay funnel their mobile payments through a clearinghouse.
“It’s still a work in progress, but we expect the transaction will close at the end of the year. We’re excited about the [remittance] market,” said Badran of MoneyGram.