SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As an Official Partner of the UEFA EURO 2024, the 17th edition of the international football championship organized by Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Ant International kicks off a global campaign across its businesses – Alipay+, Antom and WorldFirst – to engage and celebrate with fans globally in the lead up to one of the biggest sporting events of the year.
UEFA EURO 2024 will take place from 14 June – 14 July 2024, in ten host cities around Germany, culminating in the finals at the historic Olympiastadion in Berlin.
“Nothing brings people closer together than travel, trade, and a legendary sport like football,” said Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International. “For European businesses, global enthusiasm over UEFA EURO 2024 brings not only international tourism revenue, but also the opportunity to grow their customer base. Through Alipay+, large and small European merchants can connect to Asian travellers through seamless, efficient digital payments and marketing offers enabled directly on their mobile phones. Ant International is also excited to work with leading mobile payment partners from around the world to boost their users' travel experience in Europe.”
Seamless travel in Germany, Europe with Alipay+ to support regional tourism drive
To ensure that tourists traveling to Germany and Europe for UEFA EURO 2024 enjoy a more seamless and convenient travel experience, Alipay+ is expanding its cross-border mobile payment acceptance and merchant coverage by enabling more payment partner apps to be accepted across Germany and other popular European destinations.
Alipay+ will connect users of 13 international e-wallets and bank apps to some of Europe's largest tourist markets in Germany and beyond. These digital payment solutions include: Alipay (Chinese mainland), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR), MPay (Macao SAR), Touch ‘n Go eWallet and MyPB by Public Bank Berhad (Malaysia), Hipay (Mongolia), GCash (The Philippines), Changi Pay and OCBC Digital (Singapore), TrueMoney (Thailand), and Kakao Pay, Naver Pay and Toss Pay (South Korea).
These mobile payment apps, who partner with Alipay+, will be accepted at tens of thousands of merchant stores across Germany, including in popular districts like Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, and Hofbräuhaus and Maximilianstraße in Munich. At top retailers like KaDaWe in Berlin, Oberpollinger in Munich, Galeria Kaufhoh department stores across Germany, and convenience stores, airports, F&B outlets and attractions, Alipay+ users can simply pay with their home payment app, enjoying not just convenience, but also special deals and competitive foreign exchange rates. On match days, fans can use their Alipay+ payment partner apps from home to make payment at the host stadiums.
Alipay+ is the exclusive Official Payment Partner of UEFA EURO 2024.
According to the Halle Institute for Economic Research, around 650,000 overseas fans are expected to attend UEFA EURO 2024, resulting in additional tourism revenue of €250 million1.
Beyond Germany, tourists who intend to travel in Europe will also find that Alipay+ is accepted in popular destinations including the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. Merchants that accept Alipay+ span from luxury and casual retail brands to vending machines, F&B and transportation.
Alipay+ now connects over 88 million global merchants cross-border in 57 markets to 1.5 billion accounts on over 25 leading e-wallets and payment apps. International travellers may pay conveniently with their home payment app, while merchants can utilize Alipay+ to reach more customers with more effective consumer engagement.
Alipay+, Antom and WorldFirst encourage fans to #GoalBeyond
Alipay+ has launched an in-app UEFA EURO 2024 fan zone exclusively for users of AlipayHK, Touch ‘n Go eWallet, TrueMoney, GCash and DANA. In addition to themed quizzes and global merchant vouchers, more fan engagement activities such as interactive football mini games will also be introduced. Users can access the Alipay+-powered fan zone directly within these participating apps.
For all other fans, Antom, a leading provider of payment processing services to merchants worldwide, will work with partners in online retail, travel and digital services to offer each fan a chance to win exclusive prizes, including trips to the event. Users will also enjoy exclusive promotions by these top merchants, such as foodpanda, iQIYI, Spotify, Apple and many more. Through Antom, these top merchants can accept a variety of payment methods, including Alipay+, which are catered to each local markets’ preference.
Globally, online and offline payment and merchant partners of Alipay+ and Antom will run UEFA EURO 2024 campaigns, offering not just promotions, but also giving fans more opportunities to celebrate the sport and win tickets to the event.
Likewise, WorldFirst will hold a lucky draw for global SMEs to celebrate and enjoy the game. WorldFirst was established to help small and medium-sized businesses overcome the complexities of international payments while doing global business.
About Ant International
Headquartered in Singapore, Ant International powers the future of global commerce with digital innovation for everyone and every business to thrive. In close collaboration with partners, we support merchants of all sizes worldwide to realize their growth aspirations through a comprehensive range of tech-driven digital payment and financial services solutions.
About Alipay+
Alipay+ is a suite of cross-border digital payment, marketing and digitalization solutions that help connect global merchants to consumers. Consumers enjoy seamless payment and a broad choice of deals using their preferred payment methods while travelling abroad. Small and medium-sized businesses may use Alipay+ digital tools to enhance efficiency and achieve omni-channel growth.
About Antom
Ant International’s Antom is a leading provider of payment processing services to merchants worldwide. Antom provides one-stop, vertical-specific digital payment solutions to meet the payment needs for merchants of all sizes. Antom currently supports merchants in over 40 countries, including, amongst others, the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, United States, and the EU countries, and offers over 250 payment methods globally.
About WorldFirst
WorldFirst is meeting the needs of SMEs engaged in international trade to expand globally. This includes global collection, making payments, currency conversion, risk management, and supply chain financing to help SMEs reduce costs and improve turnover efficiency to generate more revenue, and quickly capture global business opportunities. WorldFirst, which employs AI and other cutting-edge technologies for risk control, prioritizes the safety and security of client funds above all else and has a leading fraud-prevention track record in the industry. WorldFirst has served one million customers worldwide and is connected to over 120 marketplaces. WorldFirst was founded in 2004 and joined Ant Group in 2019.
To learn more about WorldFirst at https://www.worldfirst.com/.
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1 Yahoo! News: Germany expects tourism boom during Euro 2024
