American Express has announced that it will be making an important move to widen the reach of its digital wallet, Serve, into the international marketplace.
This move makes Amex the first credit card company to launch a global partnership for the digital wallet with Lianlian Group, one of the top mobile payments providers in China. Furthermore, American Express has also invested $125 million in equity into Lianlian Pay.
The Serve digital wallet is an integration of a number of different types of payment option into one account for the user, who can choose to fund it from a credit or debit card, or a bank account. This service has brought about several advantageous carrier partner deals for the service in the United States, but this is the first time a step has been taken to roll the technology into one of the world’s most rapidly growing consumer markets.
The agreement that Amex has made with the Lianlian Group will permit the latter company to license and use the digital wallet in its services and products for businesses and individual consumers within China. Serve’s platform will assist Lianlian Group to power a digital wallet that will allow these Chinese consumers to pay their bills, fill their mobile phone minutes, and make online purchases of products and services.
The Lianlian Group has been operating since 2004 and currently has about 300 million mobile phone customers in China. It functions by way of a small business agent network of over 300,000 across the country.
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