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Ant Financial: The World’s Largest Financial Services Firm

A little under three years ago I took a train down the east coast of China, from Beijing to Hangzhou. I was going to visit Alibaba Group and its affiliate Ant Financial to learn how the two were shaping the Chinese payments industry.

Their presence was everywhere.

In Beijing I had been shown how easy it was to do online shopping using their payments functionality, and I experienced for myself how easy it was to do offline shopping using a phone and QR code. My kids were marginally excited by the souvenirs I brought home; I was much more excited by the way I bought them. At a restauran…

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Ant Financial: The World’s Largest Financial…

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