Billionaire Jack Ma, owner of payment app Alipay, seeks to lure 44 million merchants to expand services for the app’s 900 million users in everything from real estate purchases to restaurant and cinema bookings, according to a March 10 report by Bloomberg. Alipay is aiming to attract these merchants and service providers in China with mini programs — lite apps that sit on top of its interface and provide quick access to services. Coronavirus has boosted demand for online services Demand for online services has reportedly surged in China since the outbreak of Coronavirus in December. He Yongming, vice president …

For the past decade, blockchain, Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies have disrupted everything they have touched — including banking, hedge funds, law enforcement, health care and real estate to name a few. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are set to revolutionize many industries, yet this is only the beginning. However, despite the overall enthusiasm and excitement around cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology’s capacity to revolutionize the world as we know it, many of the world’s richest men have expressed mixed opinions. For instance, some billionaires, like Warren Buffett, are known to be staunch Bitcoin critics while others, like Tim Draper, are avid …

Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has said that blockchain and other advanced technologies still need to prove they can help evolve society in a “greener and more inclusive” direction. His remarks came as part of a keynote delivered at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in China September 17, as local outlet cnBeta reports. While Ma’s keynote focused on the challenges and common (mis)perceptions surrounding the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in particular, he reserved a place for blockchain and internet of things (IoT) technology as technological watersheds in the new “data age,” arguing that: “The data …

Since Bitcoin’s uses started to be thrashed out in forums and around dinner tables alike, there was always the belief that it would be a perfect thing for the likes of Amazon to accept. Digital cash for a digital store. Amazon may well be getting into the blockchain game, albeit slowly, and not with Bitcoin. But what about Alibaba? Alibaba is in the East, what Amazon is in the West, and is a massive eCommerce business with huge sway and power in the tech market. So, if Amazon’s Bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrency journey is pretty much mapped out and accounted …

Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial has trialled its first blockchain remittances, sending a transaction in three seconds, Bloomberg reports June 25. The company, formerly known as AliPay, completed a funds transfer between its AliPayHK app in Hong Kong and Filipino payment app GCash, its joint project with local telecoms company Globe Telecom. Part of a growing trend of Blockchain remittances in the Philippines, Ant Financial will establish international outreach in future, CEO Jack Ma told the press on the back of the project. “Using blockchain to achieve cross-border remittances is one of my most concerned projects in the past six months. …

Alipay’s operator Ant Financial has entered into “definitive agreements” with investors to secure $14 bln in a Series C equity financing round. The money will be spent to pursue blockchain and technological innovation, according to a company announcement today, June 8th. Recently valued as high as $150 bln, China’s Ant Financial plans to invest the capital in accelerating Alipay’s blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), security, and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities for its global tech platform, that targets delivering financial services to unbanked and underbanked consumers and small enterprises globally. The financing round includes an RMB tranche raised from domestic investors, …