Asia’s burgeoning e-commerce industry has seen many payments companies race to invest in customers’ appetite for digital transactions by offering differentiated services, sealing mergers and acquisitions and spending top dollar on marketing.
Payoneer, a payments processing company based in New York, steered toward a more niche market by targeting small businesses selling globally. That strategy has seen the company register triple-digit growth in payment volume in Asia since 2012, according to data seen by CNBC.
Globally, the company’s payment transaction volume in 2016 grew 86.2 percent to $7.82 billion, whereas Asia saw a massive 153 percent increase on-year.
Payoneer has three segments of focus in Asia — cross-border payments for businesses that sell on global marketplaces like Alibaba and Lazada; vacation rentals on platforms like China’s Tujia; and digital freelancers.
As Asia’s largest e-commerce market, China is a target for most companies doing business in the region. But competition from domestic players is stiff in China. De Courcy says Payoneer’s strategy there is to build partnerships with companies throughout the e-commerce ecosystem — including manufacturers, sellers, logistics and providers of other auxiliary services.
Payoneer now has offices in Tokyo, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Manila, Bangalore, Seoul and Hong Kong and it is looking to set up more offices around the region. Globally, it has raised about $234 million in funding and de Courcy said there are no current plans for an initial public offering.
Source: CNBC
