Ripple Enters Chinese Online Shopping Market
E-commerce is a mammoth industry in China worth an estimated $700 billion in 2017. For Chinese online marketplaces to sell overseas they will need quick, cheap, and convenient payment processing which current banking systems do not provide. Ripple is coming to the rescue with its xCurrent system and an expanding number of new partners in the region.
Some of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world are aimed at the Chinese market whose spending power is showing steady growth. Facilitating cross-border payments has been the bottleneck so far and blockchain company Ripple plans to alleviate that by partnering up with Hong Kong licensed money service firm LianLian.
Ripple expands the Net
In a company blog announcement San Francisco based Ripple stated that they had entered into a partnership with the Chinese e-payments provider which already has over 150 million users in the region. To facilitate more efficient real-time cross-border remittances, invoice payments and e-commerce payments LianLian will be joining RippleNet. The xCurrent settlement solution provided by Ripple offers end-to-end tracking for banks which power cross-border transactions between China, the US, and Europe.
Arthur Zhu, CEO of LianLian was in full support of the partnership;
“With RippleNet, we will further enhance that experience and increase our market share by offering customers instant, blockchain-powered payments across the 19 currencies that we currently support. We look forward to working with Ripple to power payment flows between China and RippleNet members in new markets.”
The company already processes billions of payments between consumers and merchants including some of the largest on the planet such as Ali Express, Amazon and eBay. According to reports this online commerce industry could be worth a staggering $1.3 trillion this year.
RippleNet is part of the company’s ‘Internet of Value’ drive. This includes a network of partners, of which there are already over 100, benefiting from faster, cheaper and more convenient cross-border and traceable payments. The Ripple’s Net is expanding in Asia with banking and commerce partners already located in Japan, South Korea, Thailand and India.
Director of joint venture partnerships at Ripple, Emi Yoshikawa, said;
“Cross-border payments related to China’s e-commerce market reached $1.07 trillion in 2017. There is a huge opportunity to make these payments quicker and more cost-efficient. With RippleNet, LianLian International will now be able to give merchants and consumers quicker, more cost-efficient payments into China, which they weren’t able to before. We also look forward to connecting other RippleNet members to LianLian.”
XRP still in slumber
News of this substantial partnership for Ripple has yet to be reflected in the price action of its own cryptocurrency, XRP. The token is currently trading at $0.75, down 80% from its high of $3.80 just over a month ago. Maybe the news of greater product adoption and more partnerships for the company will renew interest in XRP and reverse its month-long downtrend.