Flutterwave and Visa launch African consumer payment service GetBarter

Jake Bright Contributor Jake Bright is a writer and author in New York City. He is co-author of The Next Africa. More posts by this contributor Harley Davidson reveals more about its push into electric vehicles Venture capital, global expansion, blockchain and drones characterize African tech in 2018 Fintech startup Flutterwave has partnered with Visa to launch […]

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India’s Ola is adding a monthly billing option for its ride-hailing customers

Ola, the ride-hailing service battling Uber in India, is introducing credit services to its users as it moves closer to a major new funding round. Today the company took the wraps off Ola Money Postpaid, a service that builds on Ola’s existing payment service — which can be used to pay rides and also third-party […]

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WeChat is quietly ranking user behavior to play catch-up with Alibaba

Over one billion people leave behind trails of information on WeChat every day as they use the messenger to chat, read, shop, hail rides, rent umbrellas and run many other errands. And the Tencent app has quietly started using this type of signal to determine whether a user is worthy of perks such as deposit-free […]

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The next phase of WeChat

Thousands of people gathered Wednesday night in a southern Chinese city for Zhang Xiaolong, Tencent’s low-key executive who built WeChat eight years ago. It’s no longer adequate to call the app a messenger, for it now enables myriads of functions that infiltrate Chinese people’s private and public lives. It wasn’t just the tech circles tuning […]

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Alibaba-backed Hellobike bags new funds as it marches into ride-hailing

2018 has been a rough year for China’s bike-sharing giants. Alibaba-backed Ofo pulled out of dozens of international cities as it fought with a severe cash crunch. Tencent-backed Mobike puts a brake on expansion after it was sold to neighborhood services provider Meituan Dianping. But one newcomer is pedaling against the wind. Hellobike, currently the country’s […]

View More Alibaba-backed Hellobike bags new funds as it marches into ride-hailing

Alibaba-backed Hellobike bags new funds as it marches into ride-hailing

2018 has been a rough year for China’s bike-sharing giants. Alibaba-backed Ofo pulled out of dozens of international cities as it fought with a severe cash crunch. Tencent-backed Mobike puts a brake on expansion after it was sold to neighborhood services provider Meituan Dianping. But one newcomer is pedaling against the wind. Hellobike, currently the country’s […]

View More Alibaba-backed Hellobike bags new funds as it marches into ride-hailing

New e-commerce restrictions in India just ruined Christmas for Amazon and Walmart

The Indian government is playing the role of festive party pooper for Walmart and Amazon after it announced new regulations that look set to impede the U.S. duo’s efforts to grow their businesses in India. Online commerce in the country is tipped to surpass $100 billion per year by 2022 up from $35 billion today […]

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Moglix raises $23M to digitize India’s manufacturing supply chain

We hear a lot about India’s e-commerce battle between Walmart, which bought Flipkart for $17 billion, and Amazon. But over in the B2B space, Moglix — an e-commerce service for buying manufacturing products that’s been making strides — today it announced a $23 million Series C round ahead of a bigger round and impending global […]

View More Moglix raises $23M to digitize India’s manufacturing supply chain

Moglix raises $23M to digitize India’s manufacturing supply chain

We hear a lot about India’s e-commerce battle between Walmart, which bought Flipkart for $17 billion, and Amazon. But over in the B2B space, Moglix — an e-commerce service for buying manufacturing products that’s been making strides — today it announced a $23 million Series C round ahead of a bigger round and impending global […]

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Alibaba-backed parenting site Babytree starts taking orders for downsized IPO

A lot of Chinese millennials may be delaying or opting out of childbearing, but those who have committed to parenting often go all out to ensure their children grow up healthy and do well in school. One company capitalizing on China’s booming mother and infant industry – which is expected to double in market valuation […]

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WeChat e-wallet teams up with Line to target Japan’s 7M Chinese tourists

China’s biggest chat app WeChat is set to make its payments service more ubiquitous in Japan, a popular outbound desitnation for Chinese tourists. On Tuesday, the Tencent-run messenger unveils a partnership with Japan’s Line chat app on mobile payments. The tie-up allows Japanese brick-and-mortar merchants with a Line Pay terminal to process WeChat Pay transactions […]

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Tencent e-wallet is following Alibaba to Hong Kong subways

China’s payments giants have taken their battle to Hong Kong. Less than a week after Ant Financial announced adding QR codes to the city’s MTR public transport network of rail, Tencent’s WeChat Pay unveiled a similar scheme on Wednesday. Starting mid-2021, commuters in Hong Kong can scan a barcode to enter the subway turnstile through […]

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