Recently, Tencent launched a cross-border payment platform called "Tenpay Global Business" (智汇鹅), which provides global collection, payment, exchange, and other services for e-commerce sellers, import and export e-commerce platforms, air ticket merchants, hotel merchants, and travel merchants.

"Tenpay Global Business" supports transactions in more than 20 global currencies. Merchants can access the services through Tenpay Global Business' official website (https://global.tenpay.com/) or its WeChat public account. According to Tencent, "Tenpay Global Business" has obvious advantages in several major aspects that merchants most value, such as the handling fees, arrival time, and real-time exchange rates. Currently, "Tenpay Global Business" has already achieved cooperation with mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Mercado Libre, and Cdiscount.

"The cross-border e-commerce market is very dynamic and growing. The extensive participation of small and micro merchants has created many jobs for young people." Royal Chen, vice president of Tencent Financial Technology, said, "We hope to smooth the settlement channels of cross-border e-commerce further and contribute to the resumption of Chinese enterprises' production in the post-epidemic period."

Royal Chen, vice president of Tencent Financial Technology

Since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the volume of online shopping has skyrocketed worldwide. According to the General Administration of Customs in China, the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in China reached 1.98 trillion yuan (US$288 billion) in 2021. iiMedia Research forecasts that cross-border e-commerce in China will reach 3 trillion yuan by 2024.

Since strict epidemic prevention and control measures were lifted in China in late 2022, international trade and cross-border consumption rebounded strongly in early 2023. According to China's Administration of Immigration, more than 2.87 million people left the country for travel or other reasons during the seven-day Spring Festival this year, with an average daily number of 410,000, up 120.5% from the same period of last year's Spring Festival. In addition, data from UnionPay International, a subsidiary of China UnionPay, shows that during Spring Festival 2023, the transaction amount of domestic consumers using UnionPay cards at ATMs and stores abroad increased by about 60%. 

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