China Fund News reporter Guo Minjun
In China, Ant Group is widely known for its flagship product, Alipay. In fact, after more than 7 years of development, its overseas business of digital technology has also achieved good results.
At the just-concluded Hong Kong 2024 Digital Economy Summit, a reporter from China Fund News interviewed Li Guowei, general manager of Ant Digital's international business department.
Overseas business nearly tripled
Li Guowei told a reporter from China Fund News that Ant Digital has promoted the digital development of many countries to reduce costs and increase efficiency through the output of digital technology. For example, the trusted identity authentication service provided by ZOLOZ has helped Freedom Pacific, a cross-border remittance application, solve the problems of low offline authentication efficiency and high cost, improve business efficiency and meet compliance requirements, and help it grow into the fastest-growing cross-border remittance company in the South Pacific region. The project has been recognized by the Ministries of Labour in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Fiji.
"Ant Digital's overseas business revenue has increased by nearly 300% in 2023, which is a successful case of China's new quality productivity empowering overseas digital transformation," said Lai. ”
"Recently, we have expanded our business into Central Asia. On March 18, Ant Digital signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Bank Center Credit Bank of Kazakhstan to provide them with technical solutions such as wallets, platforms, and credit ratings to help them better serve small and micro enterprises. This cooperation is another step forward in Ant Digital's strategy to go global. ”
Localization + international authoritative certification two-wheel drive
In recent years, going overseas has become an important development strategy for many Chinese enterprises, what experience is worth sharing with Ant Digital?
In this regard, Li Guowei said: "Ant Digital's overseas business is positioned as 'digital technology'. First, as each country has a different business environment and regulatory rules, we must be very respectful of local localization needs, and we will also provide compliant technical services according to local regulatory requirements. Second, get as many international certifications as possible. For example, our trusted identity authentication technology has been recognized by users ISO27001 the Information Security Management Standard and the ISO27701 Privacy Data Management Standard, PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certification for the third-party payment industry, and SOC2 Type 2 certification (a very important certification in the financial field). ”
Enhance data security and privacy protection
Contribute to the healthy development of the digital economy
Due to the frequent occurrence of cyber attacks and fraud cases in recent years, various countries have introduced relevant regulatory rules to improve data security and personal privacy protection. In this regard, Lai Guowei said: "This will help promote the healthy development of the digital economy, and we welcome it very much. ”
Lai also pointed out that the relevant regulatory rules on data security and personal privacy protection also restrict the cross-border flow of data, so countries are exploring how to conduct data flow safely, efficiently and compliantly.
Lai believes that at this stage, the first focus should be on exploring ways to allow data to circulate within the country, and at the same time, improve relevant laws and regulations. Ant Digital is also actively cooperating with regulators in various countries and regions, such as the Bank of Thailand and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, to study how to use artificial intelligence, privacy-preserving computing and blockchain technology to promote the safe and efficient flow of data. It is hoped that a relatively mature and market-certified model can be explored in a country or region first, so that data can circulate safely and efficiently. On this basis, cross-border collaboration of data can be steadily promoted.
Try to use digital technology to facilitate small and micro businesses around the world
Lai revealed that Ant Digital is actively participating in Ensemble, a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) project launched by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in March. The focus of the Ensemble project is the HKMA's wCBDC "sandbox", which will further study and test tokenised use cases, including the settlement of tokenised real-world assets (e.g. green bonds, voluntary emission reductions, aircraft, EV charging stations, electronic bills of lading and treasury management), and is more likely to develop into a new financial market infrastructure that will serve as a bridge between tokenised real-world assets and tokenised currencies in transactions. Ant Digital will provide technical support for these projects.
"In the current global payment system, due to many factors such as time differences, differences in financial supervision between countries and complicated operational processes, cross-border payment cycles are relatively long and costly. At the same time, in some underdeveloped regions, the financial system is not perfect, and local merchants have a strong demand for payment services. Therefore, we hope to use secure, compliant, and credible digital technologies to support the innovation work of financial and regulatory agencies, solve payment pain points, and meet payment needs. ”
In addition, he pointed out that in the era of the digital economy, a large number of small and medium-sized merchants and individuals in advanced economies also need a platform that allows them to sell their goods and services to the world at a lower cost and in a more convenient way.
Both the Singapore government and the Hong Kong SAR government have recently introduced measures to support the digital transformation of small and micro enterprises. For example, the 2024 Budget of the Hong Kong SAR Government mentions that Hong Kong Cyberport will be responsible for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises. Lai told reporters that Ant Digital is actively participating in it, working closely with Cyberport and other institutions.
Huge application scenarios have emerged
Technological innovation based on real needs
Li Guowei told China Fund News: "Because of the real person authentication, anti-money laundering, mPaaS and other solutions, which are widely used in 1 billion domestic users and hundreds of millions of overseas users every day, it can be said that it is a very mature solution, so it can not only serve customers in the Asia-Pacific region, but also many European and American countries will purchase these mature technical solutions from us according to their needs." ”
Because it continues to serve 1.4 billion users around the world, many innovative solutions are actually generated based on actual needs on the platform. "For example, as early as 2017, we implemented face verification in KFC's baseline restaurants, which is the world's first commercial pilot project for face payment. With the growth of the customer base, the extension of scene demand, and the offensive and defensive game with the black and gray industry for many years, our identification and anti-counterfeiting capabilities have also been continuously polished and improved. ”
Lai Guowei said that Ant Digital has been exploring digital technology overseas since 2017, and has exported the best practices and technical capabilities honed by Ant Group in China's huge market in the form of products to serve the digital transformation of overseas customers. After years of development, Ant Digital has formed a product matrix of mobile APP development platform mPaaS, security technology brand ZOLOZ, cloud-native distributed solution SOFAStack, and Web 3.0 technology brand ZAN, serving hundreds of overseas partners, covering multiple scenarios such as telecommunications, finance, and government affairs, and accelerating the convenience and inclusiveness of digital services in overseas markets.
Editor: Huang Mei
Review: Muyu
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