SINGAPORE – Tourists to the Republic and consumers can now make e-payments via Alipay+ at about 11,000 hawker centre stalls, coffee shops and wet markets via the universal Singapore Quick Response Code (SGQR).
The addition of Alipay+ to SGQR in partnership with Nets was announced by China’s Ant Group on Tuesday.
Alipay+ is now accepted at hawker centres managed by the National Environment Agency (NEA), Housing Board coffee shops, wet markets and industrial canteens run by JTC Corporation.
Partner e-wallets supported by Alipay+ are AlipayHK from Hong Kong; Touch ‘n Go eWallet from Malaysia; GCash from the Philippines; TrueMoney from Thailand; and Kakao Pay from South Korea.
Alipay, a major cashless payment service provider in China and one of Alipay+’s e-wallet partners, has been integrated into SGQR since 2019.
Unlike Alipay, Alipay+ has options for multiple e-wallets for different countries, allowing users to make payments in overseas markets using their local e-wallets.
“With Alipay+’s integration into SGQR, it makes it more convenient for foreigners travelling to Singapore by enabling them to pay with their home e-wallets, which they are familiar with,” noted Dr Cherry Huang, general manager of Alipay+ offline merchant services at Ant Group, in a media release.
“Tourists no longer have to worry about trying to find the right amount of cash to pay in a bustling environment like hawker centres.”
As tourism recovers, figures from the Singapore Tourism Board show that Singapore welcomed more than 2.9 million visitors in the first quarter of 2023, with Asian tourists forming the majority of arrivals.
Among the top 10 markets were tourists from Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines, China and Thailand. In 2019, before the pandemic, there were 3.6 million visitors from China.
The SGQR code was launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in September 2018 for consumers and businesses to make all e-payments using a single QR code via different payment apps, including GrabPay and Nets.
In practice, this means that a merchant needs to display only one QR payment code across a variety of digital wallets and payment apps.
“By facilitating digitalisation for hawkers through collaborations with partners such as Alipay+, we are empowering small businesses to better serve their customers whilst providing them opportunities to expand their customer base,” said Nets group chief executive Lawrence Chan.
