Ant Group’s latest Singapore expansion brings mobile payment apps from Malaysia and South Korea to the city

Ant Group’s Alipay+ service will now process fare payments for ComfortDelGro Taxi made through Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go eWallet and South Korea’s Kakao Pay

The fintech giant has been rapidly expanding in Singapore as it eyes Southeast Asia for greater growth outside China after recent regulatory troubles

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Ant Group is partnering with Singapore’s ComfortDelGro Taxi to handle mobile payments for fares made through Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go eWallet and South Korea’s Kakao Pay. Photo: Handout

Published: 2:07pm, 9 Jun 2022Updated: 3:22pm, 9 Jun 2022

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group is continuing its expansion in Southeast Asia with a new digital payment service in Singapore, allowing taxi passengers from Malaysia and South Korea to use different apps to pay with their own currencies.

Ant on Thursday unveiled its partnership with ComfortDelGro Taxi, Singapore’s largest taxi operator, to enable cashless payments through Touch ‘n Go eWallet, the leading mobile payment service in Malaysia, and Kakao Pay, a South Korean digital wallet service, according to a press release. The new payment options will work across a combined fleet of about 9,000 Comfort and CityCab taxis.

The deal allows users to pay their cab fares without needing to exchange currency or download a new app, and instead processes the payments through Ant’s Alipay+, a cross-border digital payment service introduced in 2020. Alipay+ currently has more than 1 billion users globally.

Ant is the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of the South China Morning Post.

Alipay+ is Ant Group’s mobile payments service for global merchants, with more than 1 billion users. Photo: Handout

As part of an early promotion, the partnership is also offering discounts to users. Touch ‘n Go eWallet will deduct either 4 ringgits (90 US cents) or 6 ringgits from a user’s total fare for the first 300 transactions each day. The discounts will vary by week and end on June 25.

Kakao Pay takes the Alipay+ partnership further with in-store purchases available at some Singaporean shops, including at Changi International Airport, where users can pay with the app at any store featuring the Alipay+ logo such as Lotte Duty Free and Shilla Duty Free.