PayPal First Foreign Company with Full Ownership of Payments Business in China

Leading payments provider and payment facilitator PayPal recently became the first foreign firm to own 100% of a payment platform in China.

According to Reuters, PayPal has acquired the remaining stake in GoPay, a domestic company in which it acquired 70% ownership during 2019.

At that time, it was one of the first foreign companies with a foothold in the Chinese payments market, with American Express being the first through a joint venture with a Chinese company. With that partnership, American Express had to process transactions through China’s network Union Pay. PayPal said that its stake in GoPay made it the first foreign company to be licensed to provide online payment services there.

PayPal joins a field dominated by domestic giants Alipay and WeChat Pay. The government there is working to prevent monopolies by Alibaba Group, which owns Alipay, and other internet companies, Reuters said.

PayPal’s 2019 annual report said that its initial plans for the Chinese market involve connecting to its global network to provide cross-border payments for Chinese consumers and merchants.

“We look forward to partnering with China’s financial institutions and technology platforms, providing a more comprehensive set of payment solutions to businesses and consumers, both in China and globally,” PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman said when announcing the original acquisition.

According to the Reuters article, which cited shareholder data from China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, PayPal had acquired the remaining stake of GoPay on Dec. 31. Details of the transaction were not disclosed, the article said.