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How China’s Ant is evolving from a payments app into a technology champion
- Ant Group has evolved from a provider of e-payments to Alibaba Group's online shopping platforms into a fintech giant with a range of businesses from asset management to technology
- Ant Group is seeking to supercharge growth by opening up its app to firms from hoteliers to food-delivery apps
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This is the second in a series of four articles analysing the Hong Kong and mainland stock markets, delving into the reforms, emergence of the Star Market as a solid fundraising venue, upcoming technology champions and the way forward. You can read part one here.
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When Starbucks was looking to boost its digital traffic in China to help sales recover from store closures prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, it turned to Alipay.
The Chinese mobile app with 900 million users scattered across the nation integrated a pre-order and pickup feature for Starbucks into its popular app last month, a service that was previously only available on Starbucks’ own mainland mobile app. The Seattle-headquartered chain of coffeehouses said on July 28 that it sees its China sales substantially recovering by the end of September, boosted by such digital initiatives.
Ant Group, the operator of Alipay, is preparing an initial public offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai later this year. Part of its sales pitch to investors is its burgeoning fees from turbocharging the digital traffic of companies like Starbucks in the world’s second-largest economy.
“The potential listing of Ant can further unlock its value as a public company,” said Jefferies analyst Thomas Chong.
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Its challenge will be to help investors understand the fast-evolving firm. Ant’s roots date back to 2004 as the payments processing arm of China’s largest e-commerce platform, Alibaba. Since then it has morphed into a service and technology provider.
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