PayPal wants you to travel all over the world with no "money": a long way, but there are opportunities-IT information

Late autumn of Narita Airport, five o'clock in the evening the sky is completely dark. Entry-exit passengers push boxes, big and small, bustling, still stop in from time to time in the duty-free shop, and ultimately, to buy "white lovers の" of chocolate gifts to take home.

On the store cashier, was "Alipay" blue signs, some people try to ask some people will still direct pulled out a credit card or cash. Peer under the friend magazine editors came to experience in person, regardless of speed or experience similar to overall feel remained in domestic.

But with the tourists out of the airport to begin their shopping trip, they will gradually find the blue background, white text "" has begun to spread in Tokyo.

Tokyo is PayPal only international programme. Swingman zoom in if the lens you will see, this word has set up camp in the world.

Blue background, white text "support" characters appeared in Japan Street

Payment scenario

Paid for the tools to gain market scenario is the Foundation and means. Across the sea to Japan of PayPal will first look at the Chinese tourists to Japan, and they are familiar with PayPal, and currency exchange inconvenience, and more "buy buy buy" urgent needs.

Starting from last October, PayPal started distribution of Japan market. Starting from the plane and open Alipay, visitors can see the nearby department store's recommendation in some stores, "random reduction" sign as in the PayPal home significantly.

Support to Chinese tourists as a starting point the real data. On October 31, the Japan Tourism Agency announced in 2016, more than 20 million people visit foreign visitors as of October 30, while tourists from mainland China to reach about 5 million people, accounting for one-fourth of the total number of visiting foreign tourists. According to the official data in 2015, per capita daily consumption of Chinese citizens has reached 15,000 yuan, more than 10,000 of the 12,000 yuan in 2013 and 2014. The Chinese tourists ' shopping list includes rice, clothing and daily necessities, electric rice cooker, toilet seat these household goods, digital products and Cosmeceutical products. Rapidly expanding Mainland tourist market led to the payment service, Alipay in Japan's landing provides a soil.

So far, due to lack of payment of licence cannot do business for local residents, Japan PayPal users are all Chinese tourists. Official version, Alipay's international strategy the first step is to complete the "little international", namely service for Chinese all over the world, especially the Chinese to a relatively large number of countries and regions, create from visa, airline tickets, hotels, foreign tourist attractions, shopping to a refund of the whole industry chain ecosystem. From this point, the first step is completed is also good.

In addition, Ant-gold suit and told Phoenix Technologies overseas payment service will be considered open to partners of Ant-gold suit, that is, India Paytm users to Japan without pay--as long as he took out his mobile phone to scan a scan.

The "internationalization" of the rapid process

11 Golden Week this year, PayPal data showed: only October 1-5th, Chinese users use Alipay payment number in overseas markets surged from a year 385%. As of third quarter of 2016, PayPal have access offline stores overseas in more than 80,000.

From the history of PayPal, acquiring business has expanded outside the end of 07. In November 2012, PayPal team established and around international documentary, a series of cross-border trade services, international payment is completed on the basis of this initial system build. 2014 incorporated PayPal Luxembourg branch, and has agreements with several foreign acquirers, including United Kingdom, Worldpay, and Germany and Wirecard Concardis, France Ingenico and so on. More than half a month ago on October 24, Ant-gold daogelasi·feigen, President of international business (Douglas Feagin) announced that PayPal and United States largest merchant acquirers First Data and the United States the largest payment reader maker Verifone to formalize a cooperative, "global collect global payment architecture almost completed."

At present, there are more than 200 countries and regions in the world access to PayPal, and supported 18, including the dollar, euro, Japanese Yen currency.

In addition to the cooperation with the foreign payment acquirers, PayPal continues to make overseas investment plans. In September 2015, Ali, led by Jin Fu ants companies to India mobile payment platform Paytm invested 680 million dollars became the largest shareholder of the parent company. On November 1, 2016, the Ant-gold suit announced today with the Thailand company Ascend to pay Money signed a strategic cooperation agreement and the strategic investment, output to skills and experience.

Obviously, for the multinationals, the cooperation and investment is the best way to adapt to the local culture, and a way to break into the local market. For PayPal, such investments but also achieved remarkable results: Paytm users jumped from more than 20 million by 150 million, became the world's fourth-largest electronic wallet, also billed as "the India version of PayPal."

Several difficulties, if you think about it

"Little international" is by no means end of PayPal, how to service the local Chinese on the basis of further expansion of business to the international community as a whole, Alipay will be for a long period of time to think about the problem. In this process, there are several difficulties still need to focus on:

1, the plight of brand recognition

Alipay Alipay English name. As a NYSE-listed company Alibaba, support was there behind the Softbank, Japan has almost become a household brand, Alipay businesses still do not know much. Phoenix Technologies to introduce Alipay Yamada Denki (YAMADA) officials asked: why businesses are more likely to access Alipay service and interest in small businesses not dare? He said they are not interested in, is still poorly understood.

2, policy constraints

More than 200 countries around the world, for the regulation of third-party payment varies, copying out domestic programmes overseas practices will undoubtedly bring a great deal of trouble. In May of this year, Thailand China Central Bank warns of micro-payments, pointed out that the latter in Thai business has not been authorized, and remind businesses use it carefully. Licence payments in PayPal in order to meet the regulatory requirements have also has complex equity conversions, overseas expansion will inevitably not encounter this kind of problem.

3, IM paying competition

Similar to the sniper and micro-payment home, IM overseas Giants will not easily let go of this opportunity. Facebook last year to join the battle for mobile payment entrance, half a month ago, Facebook Messenger use the Paypal account payment transactions in a dialogue on the message was revealed in the media, Japan chat Line has its own online payment solutions. Compared with domestic and overseas competition environment faced by Alipay is more complex and changeable.

PostScript

The "internationalization" of the proposition was too grandiose, PayPal wants to do "person, can sweep the yard" where there is still a long way to go. Challenges and opportunities that come with even more. Under the existing achievements, PayPal has reason to be optimistic, but it also has to be careful.

支付宝想让你游遍全球不带“钱”：路很长，但有机会 - IT资讯

深秋的成田机场，晚上五点钟天色就已经全黑了。出入境的旅客推着大大小小的箱子，虽然行色匆匆，还是不时在免税店中驻足，少不了要买点“白色の恋人”巧克力之列的礼物带回国去。

店里的收银台上放着“支付宝”的蓝色标牌，有些人会试着问一下，有些人仍然会直接掏出信用卡或者现金。同行友人技痒之下亲自上前体验了一把，无论速度还是体验整体感觉仍然和国内相似。

而随着这些游客走出机场开始他们的购物之旅，他们会逐渐发现，这个蓝底白字的“支”已经开始在东京街头蔓延。

东京仅是支付宝国际化方案的一隅。如果把镜头拉远就会看到，这个字已经在全球安营扎寨。

蓝底白字的“支”字出没在日本街头

支付的场景

支付工具想要获得市场，场景是根基也是手段。漂洋过海来到日本的支付宝首先将目光放在了赴日旅游的中国人身上，他们熟悉支付宝的使用，又有换汇不便的困扰，更有“买买买”的迫切需求。

从去年十月开始，支付宝开始布局日本市场。从下飞机开始，打开支付宝，游客就可以看到附近商家的推荐；在一些商店，“随机减”的标识像在支付宝的老家那样显著。

以中国游客为切入点有现实数据的支持。今年10月31日，日本观光厅宣布，2016年的访日外国游客截至10月30日超过了2000万人，而来自中国大陆的游客达到约500万人，占到整体访日外国游客数量的四分之一。据官方数据，2015年中国公民人均在日消费已经达到1.5万元人民币，超过了2014年的1.2万元和2013年的1万元。这些中国游客的购物清单涵盖了大米、服装这些日用品，电饭煲、马桶圈这些家庭用品，还有数码产品、药妆产品。迅速增加的大陆游客市场催生了支付服务，为支付宝在日本的落地提供了土壤。

到目前为止，由于缺少支付牌照无法对本地居民开展业务，日本的支付宝用户仍然全部是中国游客。比照官方的说法，支付宝的国际化战略第一步要完成的就是“小国际化”，即为遍布世界各地的华人服务，尤其是中国人去的比较多的国家和地区，打造从签证、机票、酒店、国外旅游景点、购物到退税的全产业链生态圈。从这方面来说，第一步完成度还不错。

另外，蚂蚁金服还告诉凤凰科技，海外支付业务以后将考虑对蚂蚁金服的合作伙伴开放，也就是说，印度Paytm的用户来日本也不用掏钱了——只要他肯拿出手机来扫一扫。

“国际化”的快速进程

今年十一黄金周期间，支付宝公布的数据显示：仅10月1日—5日，中国用户在海外市场使用支付宝付款的笔数同比去年猛增385%。截至2016年三季度，支付宝在海外已接入线下门店超过8万家。

从支付宝的历史上来看，07年底境外收单业务就已经展开。2012年11月，国际支付宝团队成立，并围绕着国际化的收单开展了一系列跨境的交易服务，在此基础上完成了国际支付的初步体系打造。2014年支付宝注册成立卢森堡分公司，并逐渐同多家境外收单机构达成协议，包括英国的Worldpay、德国的Concardis和Wirecard，法国的Ingenico等等。半个多月前的10月24日，蚂蚁金服国际事业部总裁道格拉斯·费根（Douglas Feagin）宣布：支付宝与美国最大的商户收单机构First Data和美国最大的支付读取器制造商Verifone正式达成合作，“全球收全球付的架构基本完成”。

目前，全球已有200多个国家和地区接入支付宝，并支持包括美元、欧元、日元在内的18种货币结算。

除了同国外支付收单机构进行合作外，支付宝还在不断进行海外投资布局。2015年9月，以蚂蚁金服为首的阿里系公司向印度移动支付平台Paytm的母公司投资了6.8亿美元成为第一大股东。2016年11月1日，蚂蚁金服又宣布今天与泰国支付企业Ascend Money签订战略合作协议并对其展开战略投资，向后者输出技术和经验。

显然，对于跨国公司来说，合作和投资是最能尽快适应当地文化习惯、打入当地市场的一种方式。对于支付宝来说，这种投资更是获得了显著的成果：Paytm的用户从2000多万跃升到1.5亿，成为全球世界第四大电子钱包，也被外界称为“印度版支付宝”。

几个困难，还要是思考一下

“小国际化”绝非支付宝的终点，如何在服务好当地华人的基础上进一步扩大业务到整个国际社会，将成为很长一段时间内支付宝要思考的问题。在这个过程中，有几个困难仍然需要关注：

1、品牌认知的困境

支付宝的英文名字为Alipay。作为纽交所上市公司的阿里巴巴，背后又有软银的支持，在日本几乎成为了家喻户晓的品牌，但了解Alipay的商家依然不多。凤凰科技向引入Alipay的山田电机（YAMADA）相关负责人询问到：为何大商户更愿意接入Alipay服务，而小的商户不太敢兴趣？他表示，他们并非不感兴趣，只是仍然缺乏了解。

2、政策环境的限制

全世界200多个国家，对于第三方支付的监管方式各不相同，把国内方案照搬出海外的做法无疑会带来极大的麻烦。今年5月，泰国中国中央银行就对微信支付发出警告，指出后者在泰业务并未获得授权，并提醒商家谨慎使用。此前支付宝为了符合国内监管要求取得支付牌照，还曾作出复杂的股权转换，海外扩张中难免不会遇到此类问题。

3、IM支付的竞争

和国内遇到微信支付的狙击类似，海外的IM巨头也不会轻易放过这个机会。Facebook去年就加入到移动支付入口争夺战当中，半个月前Facebook Messenger利用Paypal账户在相关对话应用中进行支付交易的消息就曾显露在各大媒体上，日本聊天应用Line拥有自己的线下支付解决方案。和国内相比，支付宝面临的海外竞争环境更为复杂和多变。

后记

“国际化”的命题实在太过宏大，支付宝想要做到“凡有人处，皆可扫码”的境地还有很长一段路要走。挑战很多，随之而来的机会更大。在现有的成绩下，支付宝有理由保持乐观，但它也必须谨慎。