At the end of January, winter rain soaked Hangzhou.
Lu Canping, the founder of Hangzhou Yaoshangxing Technology Co., Ltd. skillfully brewed a pot of Longjing tea and quietly melted away the chill outside the window.
His company focuses on “customization on demand” business such as clothing, shoes, hats, and accessories, mainly in the European and American markets.
Taking advantage of the cross-border e-commerce express, this private enterprise, which was established less than ten years ago, has seen its annual revenue jump from the initial few hundred thousand yuan to over 100 million yuan, and its profits have naturally increased.
On one side is the warmth of life by the West Lake, and on the other side is the commercial enthusiasm surging in the wave of private enterprises going overseas.
When Lu Canping picked up the tea cup, every transaction link and every fund settlement between his company and global consumers was silently provided with solid support by the efficient and reliable cross-border payment system behind the screen.
Currently, the value of cross-border payment institutions is being redefined. Its role has evolved from a simple capital payment channel to a new infrastructure that empowers the “capillaries” of global trade. It has jumped from an auxiliary tool to an indispensable core node in global trade, and it will continue to enhance the global competitiveness of China’s manufacturing through practical actions.
Laying a “highway” for overseas payments
In recent years, my country’s cross-border e-commerce has grown in scale from small to large, and its quality has become stronger and better. It has become a new highlight in my country’s foreign trade and global economic and trade fields.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, my country’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports will reach 2.75 trillion yuan in 2025, an increase of 69.7% over 2020.
Among them, Africa is an important stage for this development wave.
In Africa, products made in China can be seen everywhere, including home appliances, clothing, etc., and wigs are especially popular among locals and have become a distinctive and eye-catching category in China-Africa trade.
According to the regional sales manager of the global payment platform Hangzhou Ping Pong Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “PingPong”), there is a huge demand for wigs in Africa. Among them, high-end customized wigs are personalized through pure hand weaving, with a unit price of over US$500, and can even be sold for about US$650 in the Nigerian market.
Xuchang City, Henan Province is known as the “Wig Capital of the World”.
In the first half of 2025, Xuchang City’s foreign trade import and export volume was 12.61 billion yuan, of which private enterprises accounted for more than 98% of the total.
However, for local private enterprises, the problems they often encounter when “going overseas” are: “Can cross-border payment account opening information be simpler?” “Can exports of goods from different countries and funds in different currencies be managed uniformly?” “Can only one payment tool be used to pay overseas suppliers, pay salaries and commissions to overseas employees, etc.”
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“Traditional cross-border payments rely on bank wire transfers and involve multiple intermediary banks. There may be problems such as high handling fees, long payment cycle, settlement in different currencies, real-time exchange rate fluctuation management, etc., coupled with the differences in financial laws of various countries, private enterprises are difficult to cope with and face the risk of losing orders.” Relevant researchers said.
In this regard, after conducting on-site research on the wig industry in Xuchang City, PingPong spent nearly a year launching local African wallet functions. It has launched local collection accounts in Nigeria, Kenya and other places, improving the efficiency of cross-border payment by sellers to the second level, allowing companies to conduct real-time settlement in local African currencies, and helping companies quickly withdraw funds.
The same payment dilemma also exists in the advanced manufacturing sector.
Shanke New Energy Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. is a national high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, production and sales of UPS uninterruptible power supply products.
“The local payment capabilities provided by the cross-border payment platform are critical. This ‘local adaptation’ promotes the precipitation of brand value.” The founder of Shanke New Energy said, “After using the local collection account in Nigeria, we quoted directly in Naira (Nigeria’s local currency), and customer payments can be received in seconds, which not only reduces the cost
Transaction thresholds and product pricing strategies are also more flexible, which enhances the brand’s global competitiveness.
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Cross-border payment institutions can effectively help enterprises achieve multi-currency and multi-channel settlement by building a global local clearing network. At the same time, they rely on digital platforms to provide services such as real-time exchange rate locking and automated account sharing, significantly improving capital turnover efficiency.
The co-president of Lianlian Digital Technology Co., Ltd., a cross-border payment institution listed on the Hong Kong stock market, said: “Currently, we have built a one-stop global cross-border capital solution to serve private enterprises. There is no account opening fee when opening the global collection function, which greatly reduces the cost of “going overseas” for enterprises. The entire process is operated online and supports multiple
Type of collection account.
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“For private enterprises, the role of cross-border payment institutions is not only a basic payment channel, but also an integrator of the global capital network.
It can open up the closed loop of trade through technological empowerment and provide key infrastructure for private enterprises to go overseas,” said a relevant researcher.
Multiple market entities work together
Private enterprises cannot “go out” without policy escort.
The Private Economy Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China, which came into effect on May 20, 2025, clearly supports and guides private economic organizations to expand international exchanges and cooperation and carry out investment and operations overseas in accordance with laws and regulations.
With favorable policies, cross-border payment institutions are accelerating their globalization layout.
At present, on the cross-border payment track, multiple market entities are working together to build a well-defined service ecosystem.
In addition to professional third-party institutions such as PingPong and Lianlian Digital, the two leading platforms WeChat Pay and Alipay and major commercial banks also occupy an important position.
Among them, WeChat Pay and Alipay rely on their huge domestic user base and in-depth global layout, and use local wallet cooperation, scan code payment and other scenario-based services as the starting point to create convenient retail payment solutions for small and medium-sized private enterprises “going overseas”, especially suitable for cross-border e-commerce retail and travel consumption.
The fund settlement needs of high-frequency small-amount scenarios such as fees; major banks rely on their complete global branch network, strong financial strength and mature compliance advantages to focus on large-scale B2B businesses such as bulk commodity trade, provide integrated comprehensive financial services, and form a clear differentiated and complementary pattern with third-party cross-border payment institutions.
It is worth mentioning that the global license layout has become the core focus for cross-border payment institutions to improve their localized service capabilities.
After sorting out, up to now, Lianlian Digital has built a global payment license layout consisting of 66 payment licenses and related qualifications, and holds the VATP license issued by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, providing services covering more than 100 countries.
countries and regions, supporting transaction settlement in more than 130 currencies; as of January 20, 2026, PingPong has obtained more than 60 payment licenses in major global economies such as China, the United States, and the European Union, and its business covers core trade areas such as Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
“With the help of policies, payment institutions are accelerating innovation and transformation, leapfrogging from single payment service providers to comprehensive financial service providers, integrating value-added services such as foreign exchange management and supply chain financing, showing the distinctive characteristics of intelligent services, network globalization, and ecological integration, and deeply empowering the globalization process of the private economy.” Relevant researchers said.
Benefiting from the upgrade of cross-border payment services, the foreign trade vitality of my country’s private economy continues to explode.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, private enterprises will continue to play the role of the “main engine” of foreign trade in 2025, with imports and exports reaching 26.04 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.1%, accounting for 57.3% of the total import and export value, demonstrating strong development resilience and market competitiveness.
Multiple parties jointly explore the “key to development”
As private enterprises accelerate their “going overseas” and new cross-border trade formats emerge, the cross-border payment industry has ushered in a broader space for development.
According to Lu Canping, many similar private companies around us maintain optimistic expectations for the future development of cross-border business.
“We continue to be optimistic about the cross-border track. In the future, we will not only increase resource investment, but also actively explore emerging markets.” He said, “In 2026, the company has begun to prepare for the Southeast Asian market.”
However, in the survey, some respondents also reported that cross-border payment institutions still face many challenges in the process of serving the private economy, including insufficient coverage of the differentiated needs of private enterprises, the problem of balancing risk control system construction and demand diversification, as well as practical issues such as data security and cross-border regulatory coordination.
In view of the pain points, relevant researchers believe that the key to breaking the situation lies in collaborative promotion of systemic innovation.
At the technical level, it is necessary to explore the large-scale application of blockchain technology to improve the transparency and security of transactions; at the industry level, lightweight service solutions should be launched to reduce the usage costs of small, medium and micro enterprises, a cross-institutional data sharing and joint risk control platform should be established to resist cross-border fraud risks, and a safe, efficient and inclusive global capital network should be built to protect the private economy’s “going overseas”.
At the specific implementation level, deepening cooperation and technological empowerment have become the two core focuses.
A professor of finance at Nankai University suggested that cross-border payment institutions should deepen localized cooperation and build a compliance service framework with local governments and banks; at the same time, they should strengthen technological empowerment and use AI and big data technology to build dynamic risk models to improve their real-time response capabilities to cross-border transactions.
Only by opening up the collaborative link of “technology + policy + ecology” can the global development potential of the private economy be fully released.
Looking to the future, relevant researchers believe that the capacity building of cross-border payment institutions should focus on three major dimensions: technically, it is necessary to build a dynamic risk control system based on AI and big data to provide enterprises with precise and customized solutions; in terms of cooperation, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with all
Collaborate with global financial networks and regulatory agencies to expand efficient and compliant clearing channels; in terms of governance, we should actively promote the co-construction of industry standards, explore the use of blockchain technology to achieve transparent governance of payment processes, and ultimately build a safe, intelligent, and inclusive global financial service ecosystem.
