Data from the Chinese government has revealed that PayPal
Holding Inc is now the first foreign operator that is fully controlling a
payment platform in the country - it has acquired 30% stake of China’s GoPay.
PayPal has made this stake purchase a year after it bought a
70% stake in GoPay and became the first foreign company licensed to provide
online payment services in China.
By reaching this milestone, PayPal will now be competing with domestic payments giants like Alipay, owned by Alibaba-affiliated Ant Group, and WeChat Pay, owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd. Meanwhile, Beijing is running an anti-monopoly campaign against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd among other internet companies.
In 2019, PayPal had announced its plans of focusing on providing
cross-border payment solutions to Chinese merchants and consumers, hence establishing
a link between China’s commerce ecosystem and PayPal’s global network.
However, PayPal’s competition with the Chinese companies won’t
be easy, considering, for instance, how a Shanghai-based payment platform
XTransfer has already made its plans to emulate PayPal clear. “We see ourselves
as China’s PayPal in cross-border businesses,” said XTransfer’s chief executive
and co-founder Bill Deng.
