Invigor Group inks new deal to expand Alipay payment services in Hong Kong
Alipay is one of the most popular payment methods in Asia with a reported 520,000,000 registered users.
Data analytics company Invigor Group (ASX: IVO) has announced a new deal with Chinese tech company Winning Group to distribute and expand one of Asia’s most popular online payment platforms, Alipay, in the region of Hong Kong.
The news comes two weeks after the company announced it had inked a binding deal with Winning Group to distribute and expand its WeChat Pay services across South East Asia.
Under the initial agreement, Invigor will market and enhance the WeChat services platform, including integrating its loyalty solution product into the platform.
As a result of this latest deal, Invigor believes it is “well positioned” to grow the payment services market share in the region through its established presence in Asia, as well as expand its loyalty solution capability.
“Alipay and WeChat Pay account for most of the payment transactions in Asia,” Invigor chief executive Gary Cohen said.
“Winning Group has once again provided us with great opportunities to distribute and expand services across regions in which we already have a strong presence,” he added.
As per the memorandum of understanding signed in September, Invigor’s revenue share will be based on a percentage (currently estimated at 0.5%) of the transaction revenue generated.
Alipay snapshot
Alipay is a third-party mobile and online payment platform and its parent company Ant Financial is one of the world’s most valued financial tech companies at over $150 billion.
It was originally created in 2004 as the payment platform for Chinese online shopping website Taobao, owned by the Alibaba Group.
It was designed as a secure system that temporarily holds money paid by an online buyer until they confirm their purchased product is received and in good condition, before the money is released to the seller.
Alipay claims to offer superior privacy and payment protection including 100% reimbursement for unauthorised transactions.
According to data from Ant Financial, the Alipay platform has 520 million registered users with 150 million users reportedly being monthly active mobile users (as at May 2018).
WeChat Pay, on the other hand, is the payment platform for China’s largest social media app WeChat and was created for peer-to-peer transfers and in-app purchases. According to Invigor, the app has 1 billion monthly active users with 900 million actively using the WeChat Pay services.
Invigor shares were up 33.33% at $0.008 on today’s news by afternoon trade.