ONLINE SILK ROAD
In the 13th century, Marco Polo was impressed by the use of paper money in China and brought the idea to Europe. More than 700 years later, Sharma was amazed by the extensive use of mobile wallet in China and copied the business to India.
The mobile wallet Sharma brought back cushioned the impact of India's cash ban on the economy. More importantly, it provided much needed financial service to millions of Indian people. India has 1.3 billion people but only 24.51 million credit cards and 661.8 million debit cards.
Insufficient financial service is not a problem unique to India but a common issue in developing countries.
Ant Financial is trying to bring their success in India to other developing countries. It has reached agreement on cooperation with leading digital payment companies in Thailand and the Philippines.
By promoting digital payment, Ant Financial is paving way for an online silk road where people can easily order and pay for products and services from not only the local market but also other parts of the world, said Jia Hang, a director of Ant Financial's international branch.
The driving force of Ant Financial's operation overseas is its leading technologies. The company aims at bringing cutting-edge digital payment technologies to India, Thailand, the Philippines and other countries, CEO of Ant Financial Jing Xiandong said.
In the past few years, China has emerged as the world's largest e-commerce market with annual transactions amounting to more than 20 trillion yuan (2.9 trillion U.S. dollars). The sheer scale and unprecedented complexity of transactions forced Chinese digital payment companies to innovate and improve at a breathtaking pace.
As a result, Chinese companies developed some of the most reliable technologies in risk control, cheat-proof and anti-money laundering systems for digital payment, saving years of research and development for local partners, Jia said.
