In the past decade or so, one of the most successful business models on the Internet has been to move information online.
In the next ten years, one of the most profitable business models may be to move money online.
A recent piece of seemingly low-key financing news is releasing an important signal.
According to reports, Ant International is advancing about US$1 billion in financing, with a pre-financing valuation reaching US$10 billion.
As an international business entity spun off from Ant Group, Ant International is currently headquartered in Singapore and focuses on global payments and cross-border financial services.
When many people see financing, they think it is just the expansion of technology companies.
But if you look at the changes in the global financial industry in recent months, you will find that things are far from that simple.
The global payments industry is undergoing a fundamental restructuring, faster than many people imagine.
In the past few decades, international payments have had a core problem – slowness.
A Chinese company pays overseas suppliers, a European company settles with Southeast Asian buyers, and an American company pays wages to overseas employees. Funds often need to go through multiple banking systems, which may take several days, and the handling fees are not cheap.
The impact on ordinary consumers is not obvious, but for global trade, this is a huge cost.
As a result, a new competitive direction emerged.
Whoever can make cross-border payments faster, cheaper, and more transparent will have the opportunity to receive the next round of financial dividends.
In the past two years, more and more giants have begun to bet on this market.
Ant International is expanding, Stripe is expanding, PayPal is expanding, traditional banks are also expanding, and even many cryptocurrency companies have begun to enter the payment field.
On the surface it is a competition for payments, but in essence it is a competition for access to global capital flows.
An easily overlooked fact is that the Internet has achieved globalization, but capital flows are still not truly globalized.
You can send an email to the other side of the world in seconds, but sending money across borders can take days.
This efficiency difference is becoming a new business opportunity.
Therefore, one of the hottest keywords in the market recently is not AI, but stablecoin payment.
When many people hear about stablecoins, they think of currency speculation. In fact, more and more companies are focusing not on the investment function, but on the payment function.
American payment companies, financial technology companies and banks are intensively launching related products, hoping to use blockchain technology to achieve round-the-clock settlement.
The reason is simple. Traditional cross-border payments require layers of intermediaries, while digital payment networks can shorten paths, reduce costs, increase speed, and improve efficiency. This is why companies are willing to try.
What is even more noteworthy is that capital has begun to place bets.
Since the beginning of this year, a large amount of funds have flowed into the payment technology and cross-border financial fields.
The media previously reported that OpenFX, a financial technology company focusing on cross-border payments, completed US$94 million in financing, and its annual payment scale grew from US$4 billion to US$45 billion in one year. This growth rate is even faster than that of many Internet companies.
What the market values is not necessarily today’s profitability, but the future infrastructure value.
Historically, every business revolution will produce new infrastructure. In the railway era, it was the railway network, in the Internet era, it was the communication network, in the mobile Internet era, it was the application store, and in the digital finance era, the payment network may be the new infrastructure.
From this perspective, Ant International’s financing actually represents a larger trend.
Global financial competition is gradually shifting from competition among banks to competition among payment networks.
In the future, when enterprises choose payment services, they may no longer first consider which bank, but which network is faster, cheaper, and more stable.
This will directly affect trade efficiency, business costs, and even international capital flow patterns.
Many people feel that financial innovation is far away from ordinary people. In fact, every drop in payment costs will eventually be reflected in commodity prices, corporate profits and consumer experience.
Whoever can become the “financial highway” of the new era is likely to take away the biggest dividends in the future.
