Alipay

Cash is obsolete in most major Chinese cities, in a large part thanks to Alipay — the world's largest digital payments platform. More than 711 million people and 80 million merchants use the app each month.

Alipay’s parent company, Ant Group, is on a mission to serve two billion people and 200 million SMEs worldwide by 2036. Having dominated the Chinese market it had to go global, so in 2020 Alipay+ was born.

Alipay+ is a new ecosystem that makes it possible for businesses all over the world to accept different payment methods, including e-wallets and bank apps, conduct cost-effective digital marketing campaigns and ultimately be connected to over 1.2 billion potential customers in the APAC region.

At a time where Chinese tech businesses were under increasing scrutiny in the US, and Alipay itself was working with Chinese regulators who were keen to break up its monopolistic power, a truly international best-in-class brand and experience was critical to ensuring that Alipay+ built trust with global merchants and consumers from the outset.

Investing in brand and experience design and working with a global design partner was a first of its kind within Alipay. We collaborated deeply – running near-daily working sessions with the Alipay team to develop the brand strategy, messaging and identity as they continued to build the product and evolve its functionality on a weekly basis.