Italian Tinaba is the first major fintech service provider in Europe to integrate Alipay+ for online and offline payments.
Autore: v.m.
Tinaba has signed a revolutionary partnership with Alipay+ to integrate the possibility of cross-border payment at merchants supported by Alipay+, allowing its customers direct access to the largest payment network in Asia with over 2.5 million stores. Tinaba is the first mobile wallet affiliated to a European bank, and the only one in Italy, enabled to collaborate with Alipay+ thus allowing its customers to be able to make payments - in euros and in their own language - in Asia directly from their app.
Italian travelers who are Tinaba customers will now be able to make cross-border payments via QR code at Alipay+ merchant partners, both in South Korea - thanks to the support of Kakao Pay - and in Malaysia. From early July, the service will also be extended to the Alipay+ network in Australia and Qatar. A further extension of the Alipay+ network in other Asian countries is expected in the following months. The goal is to cover the whole continent in a short time.
Through simple integration, Alipay+ provides a suite of global and unified mobile payment solutions, as well as marketing tools, to connect merchants with multiple e-wallets, banks and other digital payment methods from different countries.
Introduced by Ant Group, Alipay+ has a global reach that allows millions of merchants to connect with over 1 billion mobile consumers, who are guaranteed a smooth and secure payment experience with access to promotions, benefits and services by merchants around the world.
The integration of Alipay+ is a further step in the already extensive collaborations between Ant Group, Tinaba and Banca Profilo as acquirer, which began in 2019. Already today, Chinese tourists can make payments and obtain promotions with Alipay in thousands of Italian shops, restaurants, taxis and tourist attractions in Italy. The partnership, which is also continuously expanding towards Italy, is a payments ecosystem with a unique experience without language and currency barriers. This seamless experience is now being extended to other Asian travelers through the partnership between Alipay+ and Tinaba.
Matteo Arpe, president of TINABA said: “The further expansion of our historic collaboration with Alipay allows Tinaba customers to travel and pay in the main Asian countries with their mobile phone safely and in their own language without worrying about cash and you change. We are particularly proud because we are the first European operator and the only one in Italy with this technological unicum: the union of the typically Western credit card payment network with the Eastern one based on QR Code technology, offering our customers, even the very young, the possibility of pay securely from your mobile practically anywhere in the world”.
"Thanks to the expansion of the partnership with Tinaba, we can connect Italian and European tourists to Asian markets even better, offering an excellent exchange rate, together with digital services and promotions thanks to the power and simplicity of payments via QR code. We appreciate the philosophy innovative and forward-looking business of Tinaba, aimed at helping banks to follow the news in the mobile fintech field, and we believe that Banca Profilo can support its growth, thanks to a global offer designed for customers on the move", said Guoming Cheng, General Manager of Ant Group.
Shin Won-Keun, CEO of Kakao Pay said, “Kakao Pay will actively support Italian tourists visiting Korea to pay with Tinaba at Kakao Pay's affiliated store network with their mobile phones and without having to change money.” And he also added that “We will try to provide the most convenient experience for Korean and Italian users with the innovative payment services of Kakao Pay and Tinaba".