Antom and Alipay: How They Connect Through Alipay+

For many people outside China, Alipay is simply a payment option that occasionally appears beside cards at checkout. For Chinese consumers, it represents something much larger.

Alipay is used to pay online and in stores, access transport, order food, manage everyday services and interact with businesses. The platform connects more than one billion consumers with over 80 million businesses, making it one of the most deeply embedded digital platforms in China.

That scale also explains why Alipay has become relevant to merchants far beyond China. At the same time, Alipay has become part of a much larger cross-border ecosystem involving Alipay+, local wallets, banking apps, acquiring partners and merchant payment platforms.

This is where Antom enters the picture.

Alipay, Alipay+ and Antom share a common payment heritage, but they perform different roles.

This guide explains how that ecosystem developed, why Alipay matters to international merchants and how Antom turns global payment connectivity into services that merchants can integrate and operate.

Contents

• How are Alipay, Alipay+ and Antom connected
• Two commerce problems created two payment businesses
• Where Alipay+ fits between the two stories
• Why Alipay matters to merchants outside China
• Why merchants still need a merchant payment platform
• FAQs

How are Alipay, Alipay+ and Antom connected?

The simplest way to understand the relationship is to look at the primary user of each platform:

Alipay is the application a consumer may open when paying for a purchase.

Alipay+ is not another version of the Alipay wallet. It is a unified wallet gateway that connects multiple mobile payment providers, national payment networks, acquiring partners and merchants. Alipay is one of the consumer wallets and payment methods connected through this broader ecosystem.

Antom operates on the merchant side. It helps businesses accept payments, connect payment methods, process transactions and manage payment operations across markets.

Two commerce problems created two different payment businesses

The relationship becomes clearer through two parallel stories.

Taobao merchants needed trust, so Alipay emerged

When Taobao, a household-name online shopping platform in China owned by Alibaba (one of China’s largest internet companies), launched in 2003, it gave buyers and sellers a place to meet online. But being able to find a product did not mean a buyer was willing to pay an unknown seller.

The buyer worried: 'What happens if I pay and the product never arrives?'

The seller worried: 'What happens if I ship the order and never receive the money?'

Alipay was first introduced as an escrow-style payment service on Taobao in 2003. Alipay was established in 2004 to address a fundamental problem in early ecommerce: how unfamiliar online buyers and sellers could trust one another. The buyer paid first, Alipay temporarily held the funds, the seller shipped the order, and the money was released after the buyer confirmed receipt.

Alipay did not begin merely as a faster payment button.

It was the trust layer that allowed online transactions between strangers to scale.

Over time, Alipay grew from a transaction tool into a broad consumer platform. It now serves more than one billion users and connects them with over 80 million businesses through payments and digital services.

The size matters, but the structure of that network matters more.

'More than 80 million businesses' does not mean 80 million identical checkout counters. The network includes physical retailers, online merchants, institutions, service providers and other partners that can reach consumers through payments, mini programs, lifestyle accounts and other digital tools.

For many Chinese consumers, Alipay is therefore not a wallet opened only at checkout.

Depending on the service, they may use it to pay in a shop, take public transport, access a merchant mini program, order a service, collect membership benefits or complete other everyday tasks. Alipay connects more than one billion users with over 10,000 types of consumer services.

This is what its scale means to an overseas merchant:

'You are not introducing Chinese customers to a new payment behaviour. You are meeting them through an interface they already understand and use repeatedly.'

alt:Alipay has become a broad consumer platform.

AliExpress merchants needed global payment access, so Antom evolved

Cross-border ecommerce created a different challenge. AliExpress, Alibaba’s global ecommerce marketplace, connected merchants with consumers across international markets. This meant merchants were no longer selling mainly to customers within a single domestic payment environment.

Buyers could now come from different countries, each with their own:

• cards;
• mobile wallets;
• currencies;
• banking systems;
• authentication processes;
• refund expectations;
• settlement arrangements.

The question had changed.

Alipay originally addressed: 'How can unfamiliar buyers and sellers trust an online transaction?'

Cross-border merchants now needed to answer: 'How can one business accept and operate payments across fragmented global markets?'

This is where Antom began.

Our merchant-payment roots go back to 2012, when we started supporting global ecommerce payment services for AliExpress merchants. As cross-border commerce expanded, merchants needed to serve customers across more markets, currencies and payment environments. We evolved with those needs, building broader capabilities to help merchants accept and manage payments internationally.

From 2022, we further expanded our local payment footprint across Southeast Asia, Europe and Japan, bringing more local payment capabilities into our global merchant payment offering.

That is why Antom is not simply an overseas version of Alipay. Alipay began by solving a consumer-side trust problem in online transactions. We developed on the merchant side, helping businesses connect to, process and operate different payment methods across markets.

Where Alipay+ fits between the two stories

Alipay’s international use demonstrated that consumers wanted to continue using their familiar home payment app when travelling or shopping across borders.

But China was not the only market with a strong local wallet.

Consumers in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and other markets developed their own preferred wallets and banking apps. An international merchant could not cover Asia simply by adding one payment method.

Integrating every wallet separately would also create repeated commercial and technical work.

Alipay+ was introduced in 2020 to connect these separate payment ecosystems. It is a unified cross-border payment gateway operated by Ant International. Alipay is one payment method within the network, alongside apps such as GCash, Touch ’n Go eWallet, TrueMoney and Kakao Pay.

Alipay+ currently connects:

• more than two billion consumer accounts;
• 50 mobile payment providers;
• more than 10 national payment schemes;
• merchants across more than 220 markets.

These figures do not describe one giant Alipay+ consumer app.

They describe a network of separate home wallets and banking apps. Consumers continue using the applications they already know; Alipay+ provides the interoperability that connects those apps with participating overseas merchants.

This is the concept behind the Singapore example:

In 2025, transactions made through Alipay+ in Singapore increased by 36% year on year, while spending through the national SGQR network almost tripled. Participating merchants could accept 25 international e-wallets and banking apps used by travellers from 17 countries and regions. The growth reached major attractions, but also restaurants, local services and neighbourhood hawker stalls.

A Chinese traveller may use Alipay. A Filipino traveller may use GCash. A Malaysian traveller may use Touch ’n Go eWallet.

The merchant can serve them through connected payment infrastructure rather than building a completely separate integration for every wallet.

Why Alipay matters to merchants outside China

Alipay matters internationally because familiarity can reduce uncertainty at the moment of payment.

During the first two days of China’s 2024 Labor Day holiday, transactions made by Alipay users in overseas markets increased by 77% year on year, while total spending rose by 10%. At the time, Chinese travellers could use Alipay for shopping, dining, entertainment and other services at more than eight million participating merchants across over 70 countries and regions.

For a hotel, retailer or restaurant, this means serving Chinese travellers with a payment experience they already recognise.

For an independent ecommerce business, the same principle applies online.

Imagine a US skincare brand operating its own Shopify store. It begins attracting Chinese customers through search, social media, influencers or customer referrals.

A card-only checkout asks those customers to adapt to the merchant’s preferred payment setup. Adding Alipay can instead offer a route to payment that already feels familiar.

However, Alipay alone does not solve the brand’s complete Asian payment strategy.

If the store later targets customers in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea, it may also need local wallets, bank-based payment methods and cards.

The distinction now becomes commercially useful:

• Alipay helps the merchant serve Alipay users.
• Alipay+ connects the merchant with multiple supported home payment apps.
• Antom helps the merchant turn those methods into an operating payment setup.

How Antom turns payment connectivity into merchant operations

A payment network creates reach.

It does not automatically create a merchant payment operation.

A payment network creates reach, but merchants still need a commercial and technical setup for accepting and operating payments. This includes onboarding, integration, transaction management and post-payment operations. Antom provides this merchant-facing layer.

Antom is Ant International’s merchant payment and digitalisation platform. Its public coverage includes more than 300 payment methods across more than 200 payment markets and over 140 currencies.

Its scope extends beyond Alipay and Alipay+ wallets to cards, online banking, bank-based payments and Buy Now, Pay Later options.

Consider a European game studio selling virtual items through its own web store:

A Chinese player may choose Alipay. Players in other markets may prefer cards or local payment methods. Because the product is delivered digitally, the studio also needs clear payment confirmation and risk controls before providing the item.

The studio therefore needs more than access to a recognisable wallet. It needs a payment operation that supports different customers, methods and markets.

An independent ecommerce merchant faces the same underlying problem at a smaller scale. It may want to add relevant local methods without rebuilding its payment stack every time it enters a new country.

Antom’s value extends beyond providing access to Alipay+, which Ant International describes as the world’s largest cross-border mobile payment public-private partnership. While merchants may also access Alipay+ through other acquiring service providers or, in some cases, direct arrangements, Antom differentiates itself by combining relevant Alipay+ ecosystem capabilities with a broader merchant payment platform designed to support international expansion.

The relationship in one sentence

There is also a geographic progression behind the three businesses.

Alipay started in China, building one of the country’s most familiar consumer payment experiences.

Alipay+ extended that familiarity across borders, connecting Alipay and other leading digital wallets and payment methods—particularly across Asia—to a wider international merchant network.

Antom takes the merchant side global. We help businesses accept, process and operate payments across markets worldwide, while giving merchants especially strong access to the diverse payment ecosystems of Asia.

Put simply: Alipay built the payment habit in China, Alipay+ connected payment ecosystems across borders, and Antom helps merchants turn that connectivity into global payment acceptance and operations.

Explore our supported payment methods or contact our payment experts to discuss the right payment mix for your target markets.

If you are deciding which methods to offer in different markets, start with our guide to understanding payment methods or explore our full payment methods coverage.