Paytm is not just the most valuable Indian fintech firm: At US$16 billion, the digital payments company boasts the highest valuation of any Indian startup. It has long been considered a standout on the Indian fintech scene and counts Softbank and Ant Financial as its primary backers. Together, those two heavyweight investors own 60% of Paytm. In a recent interview with The Financial Times, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar said, "We see ourselves on a healthy path."

Chinese investment in India has flourished over the past decade, reaching a $8 billion as of December 11, 2019, as compared to $200 million a decade earlier in 2009. A significant amount of that investment is coming from China’s two tech giants, Alibaba and Tencent, which have been aggressively investing in Indian start-ups. Many of these start-ups have crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold to become unicorns.

Alibaba and Ant Financial have invested resources in five unicorns out of the six companies they’ve invested in, while Tencent has done the same for seven out of twelve startups they’ve funded. This would mean that Alibaba and Tencent have invested in approximately half of the 31 unicorns in India, according to a report from Iron Pillar. A six-fold increase of Chinese investment in India was recorded between 2013 and 2014, coinciding with the strategic restructuring of Alipay to Ant Financial. Experts believe that a majority of Chinese capital in India come from Alibaba and Tencent, or its subsidiaries.

2019 was the year of the aspirational super app - aspirational because no platform has come anywhere near the dominance of China's WeChat. WeChat never branded itself as a super app. It simply became one thanks to a timely arrival, its appeal to Chinese users and lack of serious competition.

Rebranding a successful tech startup as a potential super app is a good way to keep the funding gravy train flowing. What could be more enticing to investors? Just ask the Southeast Asian ride-hailing giants Grab and Gojek. But China is a unique market, where users are happy to sacrifice choice for convenience and a frictionless experience. Elsewhere, notably India, users prefer different apps for different functions.

Vanguard hopes to break into the China market through its new partnership with Ant Financial. The two giants announced a joint venture on December 16, 2019, a financial roboadvisor service with an initial investment of approximately 20 million yuan (USD$2.86 million). Individuals with a minimum investment of 800 yuan (USD$115) may access the service, where they could build their investment portfolios from over 5,000 mutual funds offered by Ant Financial.

On December 3rd, Line Pay Taiwan and iPass Corporation announced a collaboration formed with partners in Japan, Thailand and Korea to expand its payment footprint. With an anticipated launch in Q1 2020, the move will open existing cashless payment ecosystems to more than 78 million users in the region and create more business opportunities for Line’s merchant partners. Additionally, Line Pay Taiwan also announced that it had renamed its joint service with iPass to “Line Pay Money” to highlight its primary usage as a digital wallet.

Cross-border transactions are often costly, incurring transfer fees, inter-bank fees and exchange rates that may add up to approximately 4-5 percent per transaction. Moreover, each country has its own set of regulations when it comes to payments. Therefore, incorporating cross-border payments onto its platform may rest in Line’s alliances in Japan, Korea and Thailand.

Taiwan's mobile payments are growing at a steady pace and are expected to hit a record NT$100 billion this year. Mobile payments reached NT$76.1 billion through the first nine months of the year, up 160% over the same period in 2018, according to data compiled by Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). Mobile payments lagged in Taiwan for years but have picked up considerably on the back of proactive government efforts to reduce the dominance of cash. Because credit card penetration is high in Taiwan, many consumers prefer to tie in their existing credit cards to payment apps (often provided by their banks) on their handsets. This differs somewhat from mainland China, where direct debit from a bank account and stored-value wallets are more prevalent. Taiwan has a more fragmented digital wallet market as well, with no single firm able to dominate to the degree Alipay and WeChat Pay do in the mainland.

In 2019, Vietnam has become one of the hottest markets for fintech investment in Southeast Asia, second only to Singapore. Fintech funding in Vietnam surged to $410 million in the first nine months of the year, accounting for 36% of Asean's total, compared to just 0.4% during the same period a year earlier, according to a new report by PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC), the United Overseas Bank (UOB) and the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA). 

Before fintech took China by storm, visitors to the country only had to remember one simple rule for payments: Make sure to carry sufficient cash. International credit and debit cards often were not accepted outside of five-star hotels and high-end department stores. Inevitably, there was some hassle involved, especially as international bank cards didn't always work at local ATMs. Ironically, now that it's much easier to withdraw cash from local Chinese ATMs with a global bank card, Chinese merchants prefer cashless payments. The trend in China is to swipe a smartphone to pay for just about any ordinary transaction: a coffee at Starbucks, a restaurant meal, a taxi, a bottle of water from a convenience store. It's a breeze as long as you have a Chinese bank account and the requisite digital wallets from Alipay and WeChat Pay on your handset. 

Therein lies the problem for visitors to China. Many of them do not have a Chinese bank account, nor do they have WeChat Pay or Alipay installed on their smartphones. With cash being increasingly unwelcome, problems can arise easily. For instance, a shop may accept cash, but because so few transactions are done in cash, not be able to give a shopper proper change. If the merchant doesn't accept international credit cards, then the shopper is out of luck.

Malaysia's digital payments sector is heating up as fintechs and incumbents enter into partnerships in a bid to strengthen their positions in the fast growing market. Research by Visa shows that 70% of Malaysians prefer to shop at retail outlets where merchants accept digital payments. The Malaysian market of 32 million people has plenty of room to grow, as cash still accounts for 60% of transactions. JPMorgan Chase expects that fast adoption of e-payments by Malaysians could see digital wallets surpass cash use by 2021.

India fintech sensation Paytm plans to reduce its losses by 1/3 to $400 million annually, according to The Times of India. Softbank and Alibaba-backed Paytm is India's most valuable tech startup with a $10 billion valuation, but has been burning cash at a torrid clip for years, like many of its peers across the region. In the 2019 fiscal year, Paytm lost a whopping $600 million, up 300% over the same period a year earlier.