“…In China, after the reform in 2016, the total POS machine fees includes a fee of 0.45 percent on each credit transaction charged by card issuers plus 0.065 percent UnionPay network service and 0.1 percent acquiring bank fee for each payment [16], while Alipay currently makes money by charging merchants fees of 0.6 to 1.2 percent for the platform and keeping the withdrawal fee at 0.1 percent, providing liquidity to merchants. Ant and Tencent have made significant overseas investments, expanding their overseas business footprint by acquiring or merging local startups and unicorns in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Africa, the United States, and Europe [17]. In India, Alipay has invested in PayTM, a local business, while in Thailand, it has invested in Ascend Money [18].…”