Ant Financial partners with First Data and Verifone as part of its global expansion

As hundreds of newly minted Chinese millionaires and billionaires continue their global shopping spree, Ant Finacial Services is expanding its reach to make sure they can buy whatever they want, wherever they want, and however they want.

On the stage of today’s Money 2020 conference in Las Vegas, the company announced a slew of partnerships in the U.S., with the payment processor First Data and hardware manufacturer Verifone.

The partnerships expand on deals that the Chinese financial services giant (and Alibaba spinout) has cut across the globe.

Last year the company was working in Hong Kong, Korea, Macau, and Taiwan working with merely 15,000 retailers. Last month that number had reached 80,000 stores in 70 countries including the U.S., the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Alipay’s biggest markets are Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and Germany.

During the Golden Week holiday (October 1 to 7) in 2016, transaction volume processed by Alipay at overseas destinations increased by four times compared to the same period last year. The countries and regions seeing the largest number of Alipay transactions are, in order, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and Germany. 

The foray into the U.S. market marks one of the remaining crown jewels in terms of luxury tourism for Chinese travelers.

“The US market is vital for Alipay, not only it is a popular destination of Chinese visitors and tourists,” said Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of Ant Financial and Head of Alipay International in a statement. “We aim to have at least one million merchants outside the Chinese Mainland to accept Alipay worldwide in three years.”

Also as part of its U.S. strategy, the company has named Souheil Badran as general manager of Alipay North America.