Asia

The retailer combines WeChat, digital checkout and coupons to reach a wider market, says Azoya's Franklin Chu.

Twelve banks joined the Tencent financing deal, which initially had a $6 billion size.

Japan has long been known for its heavy use of cash, which is a burden for banks that are trying to move more services online. Maintaining ATMs alone costs about 700 billion yen ($6.6 billion) annually and another 100 billion yen is spent handling cash at branch counters, Nomura Research Institute estimates.

Despite a culture of innovation, cash is still king in Japan. That paradox gives Japan a chance to leap ahead of other countries in payment innovation, says Fime's Takahide Kadoyama.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc. said it plans to spin off its JD Logistics shipping business in a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The decision comes after a decade in which several U.S.-based institutions elected to drop the words "credit union" from their branding.

Kate Fitzgerald, senior editor at PaymentsSource, talks to Eric Grover, principal at Intrepid Ventures, about the political activities that hinder the expansion of payment systems.

Ant Group Co.’s valuation may be cut further under new measures proposed by China to curb market concentration in its online payments market, according to new estimates from Bloomberg Intelligence.

ByteDance, owner of short video sharing platform services Douyin (China) and TikTok (U.S.), has reportedly launched a payment service for the 600 million users of the Douyin platform.

Thousands of U.S. merchants are weighing measures to freeze acceptance of Alipay and WeChat, two of the eight Chinese mobile payment apps that would be blocked if outgoing President Trump’s recent executive order goes into effect.