Top sponsor from China
What does Alipay hope to achieve with its massive European Championship advertising?
02.07.2024, 17:31
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Football fans are currently seeing the Alipay+ logo on banners, fan zones or in TV spots at European Championship matches. European boss Pietro Candela explains what is behind it and which target group the Chinese payment service provider wants to address.
Mr. Candela, you are the European boss of Alipay+, the Chinese payment service provider that is currently heavily promoting itself at the European Football Championship. What is so appealing to your company about the European Championship?
Pietro Candela: We are in a very important phase. In 2014, we decided to roll out our network globally to serve Chinese travelers. Europe, as a popular travel destination, plays an important role in this. Now we are expanding our business model to other Asian e-wallets…
… digital wallets, which are also known in Europe with Paypal or Android Pay …
Yes, and we want to make global travelers and European traders aware of their benefits. That’s why we sponsor the European Championship – it’s the biggest stage in Europe with a universal language, football.
Why Europe? Why not the USA, where the economy is growing much faster?
In the long term, we see huge potential for Europe to catch up. When it comes to digital payments, Europeans are simply not ready yet. This is also because Europe is very fragmented linguistically and culturally. But I believe that we will see a shift from an economy of size to a decentralized network economy. In other words, more local cooperation alongside global champions. This plays massively into Europe’s hands because we have long been living the balance of interests required for this.
Back to the European Championship: Many fans currently see your logo on banners, fan miles or in TV commercials – but they don’t know what to do with your brand. So: what are you actually doing?
While we are already extremely popular in Asia, we can communicate our brand even better in Europe. Ultimately, it’s about two levels: Ant Group and Ant International appeal to Asian consumers who like to shop at European retailers. But German and Austrian banks are also working with us as part of the EM. Ultimately, we offer a QR code payment, and many retailers and customers want to try it out. Alipay+ is a conglomerate of local wallets and financial apps such as Alipay, Bluecode or Kakao Pay, which make it possible to pay anywhere in the world with a QR code. Alipay+, based in Singapore, is in a sense the interface or technology behind it. An entity with which we now connect users and retailers globally in partnership with local financial institutions. For example, we target retailers who have Asian tourists as customers and want to offer them a payment platform that also includes marketing content and services. Our goal is for tourists anywhere in the world to be able to pay with Alipay+ and have access to promotions and privileges offered by the brands and stores.
And what makes your competition around Visa, Mastercard & Co. worse? I can also pay with them almost anywhere in the world.
Our competitor is cash. Any provider of digital technology or services is a like-minded person who can make life easier for travelers. In Asia, QR payment has been crucial for financial inclusion and cashless economy. In Europe, it is different. Almost every European has a bank account, almost every retailer has a digital payment terminal with NFC technology. When a European shops in Europe, that is not our focus. And yet there are a lot of opportunities for us in retail that go beyond pure transactions. This is where QR codes and apps can play a role and represent use cases. Shoppers are happy with current payment systems, but can still enjoy a more comprehensive shopping experience through their financial apps – before, during and after their trip.
Jannik Tillar spoke with Pietro Candela
The interview first appeared at Capital.de