Grab and Fave Join Forces; Tencent and Alibaba Competition Heats Up: News Roundup

PaymentFacilitator’s News Roundup is a curated mix of the past week’s news and articles from around the web, including company announcements, global payments news, and other coverage and analysis of topics relevant to payment facilitators.

The Competition Continues

Tencent ups the ante on Alipay parent Alibaba in the Philippines. And the competition for mobile payments in the region continues. Last year, Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial upped the ante by investing 45% in the fintech arm of Globe Telecom. This year, WeChat owner Tencent Holdings called with a joint investment of $175 million in the financial technology unity of Philippine telecom PLDT – Globe Telecom’s leading rival. From Nikkei Asian Review.

The Power of Two

Grab and Fave join forces. In an effort to boost growth rates across Singapore and Malaysia, Grab has teamed up with deals platform Fave (formerly Groupon Singapore). As part of the partnership, Fave will bring onboard merchants for GrabPay and GrabFood, while also planning to add GrabPay as a payment option on its customer platform later this month. From The Business Times.

TCB and Visa implement Taiwan’s first QR code. Taiwan Cooperative Bank (TCB) has joined forces with global card brand Visa to officially make Taiwan QR-compliant. With this partnership, locals will be able to link their TCB Visa debit or credit card with the Taiwan Mobile Payment mobile app and cash in on the convenience of going mobile. From Finextra.

Global Payments UK and Alipay team up to target the Chinese tourist market. Through this partnership, merchants will be able to serve and entice Chinese tourists using their own native currency – Chinese Yuan – both in-store and online. From Finextra.

The Price of Expansion

Fintechs face identity crisis. With the ever-expanding payments ecosystem, it’s become challenging for startups and service providers to determine just where they fit in the lineup. Classifications such as payment facilitator, merchant of record and staged digital wallet can have confusing and overlapping criteria, while processors and aggregators face challenges in deciphering how to classify, onboard and support. Payments attorneys come to the rescue with a thorough explanation. From Venable.