Paydibs, a Malaysia-based digital payments firm, has announced a strategic partnership with Alipay+, a global wallet unit under Ant International, to expand cross-border payment capabilities. Paydibs said in a statement on Tuesday that through this collaboration, its merchants can now accept payments from over 15+ leading e-wallets and bank apps in the Alipay+ partner ecosystem, including Alipay, GCash, Kakao Pay and others. This capability allows small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to...

Philippine fintech player GCash has launched a new payment innovation, introducing a next-generation contactless solution that offers convenience, security, and global reach with partnership with Alipay+, Mastercard. GCash said in a statement on Thursday that GCash Tap to Pay can now be used by its users to pay at more than 150 million Mastercard acceptance locations across the world, powered by Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. This innovative solution for e-wallets to make NFC...

Carro, the Singapore-based online used car platform, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with fintech platform SY Holdings, entering a strategic partnership that will support Carro’s expansion plans through tech-enabled financing solutions. Carro said in a statement on Thursday that SY Holdings is a Hong Kong-listed digital intelligence technology company with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and industry supply chains. This strategic partnership will leverage artificial...

Maybank Investment Bank has raised Sea‘s full year revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) estimates by 3 percent to 6 percent. The research house said in a note on last Wednesday that Sea’s strong tech-driven execution, underpenetrated markets and supportive competitive landscape position it for sustained high growth, while its disciplined, cost efficient approach allows both expansion and profitability gains. It is noted...

TikTok Shop doubled its global gross merchandise value (GMV) in the first half of 2025, with U.S. market hitting $5.8 billion, Momentum Works & Tabcut report showed last Friday. The duo said in a statement that TikTok Shop’s global GMV hit $26.2 billion in the first half, and if the current pace of growth holds, the platform is on track to double its 2024 GMV of $33.2 billion by year-end. In the U.S., TikTok Shop’s GMV has reached $5.8 billion (surged 91 percent year on...

Singapore consumers lead the way in cross-border eCommerce adoption, expect transparency and trust at checkout, new Airwallex study revealed Wednesday. The study which is recently commissioned by Airwallex in partnership with Statista polled 1,000 cross-border eCommerce shoppers in Singapore, revealed that international purchasing is now a mainstream habit amongst Singaporeans. Shoppers make purchases across Asia-Pacific, as well as the United States and Europe, looking for items in fashion...

Maybank Investment Bank said Wednesday that it sees minimal impact from Indonesia’s new tax on e-commerce platforms as it believes consumers can absorb the 0.5 percent tax. The research house said in a note that it believes consumers will ultimately bear the cost. It is noted that Indonesia’s finance ministry will require e-commerce platforms to collect a 0.5 percent income tax (PPh Pasal 22) on sales by merchants operating on their sites. The regulation allows the government...

Over a third of Asia Pacific (APAC) consumers use artificial intelligence (AI) to Shop, with adoption across generational groups, Adyen’s research showed Monday. In its 2025 Annual Retail Report, the firm highlighted a rising momentum in AI adoption across APAC’s retail landscape. A poll of 41,000 consumers across 28 markets including Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, and Malaysia reveals that over a third (38 percent) of APAC consumers now use AI to help them get...

Singapore’s retail group FairPrice Group (FPG) has partnered with Google Cloud to showcase FPG’s Store of Tomorrow (SOT) program, a roadmap to embed the latest cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into new and existing in-store and omnichannel retail touchpoints to redefine customer experiences at FairPrice supermarkets. The duo said in a statement on Thursday that under this program, FPG will deploy cloud-connected shopping carts, an AI-powered store operations...

Singapore’s e-commerce market size is expected to reach S$37.5 billion ($28.92 billion) by 2030, growing 8 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from its 2024 estimated value of S$22.8billion ($17.59 billion), according to the 10th edition of the Worldpay Global Payments Report (GPR). According to the report, digital wallets accounted for over half (53 percent) of global ecommerce transaction value in 2024, while at point of sale (POS) 32 percent of spend was made via digital...

The direct-to-consumer (D2C) sector is making its mark in Southeast Asia (SEA)’s startup ecosystem, with more than 2,000 companies and all-time funding of $300 million, Tracxn said Wednesday. The firm said in a statement that SEA’s D2C sector raised $32.5 million in 2024, reflecting a 208% growth from $10.6 million in 2023, even as the overall SEA tech ecosystem saw more than a 55% decline in funding during the same period. It is noted that globally, D2C funding declined by 25...

Google has on Tuesday announced the integration of ShopeePay and TNG eWallet (an Alipay+ Partner) with Google Pay in Malaysia, marking Google Pay’s first eWallet integrations in Southeast Asia. This new feature will enable Android users in Malaysia to checkout seamlessly with their preferred eWallets when shopping on mobile sites via Google Chrome, starting with selected online merchants, Google said in a statement. This initial integration features ShopeePay and TNG eWallet, and will...