Southeast Asia-China cross-border QR payment expansion

Digital payment providers are expanding cross-border QR code interoperability between Southeast Asia and China.

Initially, ShopeePay partnered with Tencent’s TenPay Global to allow users from Singapore and Thailand to pay at Chinese merchants via Weixin Pay QR codes, with plans to expand to Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Following this trend, Philippine Payments Management, Inc. (PPMI) and Ant International’s Alipay+ integrated the Alipay+ gateway with QR Ph, the Philippines’ national payment standard. This allows international travelers to use their own e-wallets at local Philippine merchants, supporting the country’s digital transformation goals.

This integration specifically enables micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the retail, food, and travel sectors to accept international payments through their existing QR Ph infrastructure without requiring additional hardware. The expansion follows a significant rise in local digital adoption; according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ 2025 Report on E-Payments Measurement, digital payments accounted for 64.69% of retail transaction volume in the Philippines, with QR Ph transactions seeing a more than 13-fold increase during that year.