Payments

Ant Financial, the Alibaba-owned fintech company, has acquired currency exchange and payments company WorldFirst. By taking over the UK company, Chinese internet giant Alibaba can take a major step into Europe.

Nets, a payment service provider from the Nordics, has announced its strategic alliance with Przelewy24. This is a major online payment service provider from Poland. This news comes after Nets recently acquired Dotpay/eCard.

Alipay, the fintech company owned by Alibaba, has obtained an electronic money license in Luxembourg. With this license, Alipay can serve the European market. The Asian payments company is already present with a licensed entity in London, but it can now serve customers across Europe.

Online retailer Otto says it's the first ecommerce company in Germany that enables instant payments for its customers. Thanks to a cooperation with Hanseatic Bank, Otto claims it's able to offer a better service, like faster delivery, now customers can transfer money instantly.

Google Pay has continued its global expansion and is now also available in France. Customers from six different banks in France can start using Google's mobile payment service. Google Pay can also be used at several online services and retailers in France.

Klarna has launched its own financing program for SME retailers in Europe. The new initiative is called Boost and is aimed to further support retailers in accelerating their growth. The company promises the application process will be simple and straightforward.

Online retailers that use the services of PayU can now offer Google Pay in their ecommerce websites and mobile apps. Two years ago, the Polish payment service provider was also chosen as a partner for Google to introduce its payment method Google Pay to Poland.

Payments companies Klarna and Mollie will work together more intensively in Europe. As of today, the payment solutions from Klarna will be available as standard for the more than 55,000 customers Mollie has in Europe.

H&M and Klarna have entered into a global partnership. Among other services, this partnership will power the H&M Club1 payment program, provide an enhanced omnichannel payment offering for customers and a streamlined post-purchase service in the mobile H&M app.

Paypal introduced PayPal Checkout with Smart Payment Buttons in the US three months ago, to give consumers more choice in how they can pay. Now, the international payments company has launched these payment buttons in Europe.

Alipay, the biggest payments firm of China, will be available in 20 countries across Europe at the end of this year. The mobile payment platform is said to have signed deals with over 100 banks and 40 digital wallets companies in Europe.

The popular Dutch payment method iDeal performed well last year. The number of payments with iDeal has increased by 33.8 percent during that period, which is a growth the method hasn't seen since 2011. More and more foreign online stores are now offering iDeal to Dutch customers.

Adyen, a major Dutch company that processes payments for companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Spotify and Netflix, confirmed it plans to list its shares publicly in Amsterdam. The company announced it will go public on the Euronext stock market next month.

When it comes to paying, German consumers are rather conservative when they are shopping online. Four in ten Germans prefer to pay on account. The second most popular payment method is PayPal, favored by almost one in three online shoppers in Germany.

PayPal and VISA dominate the European ecommerce industry. In almost every country in Europe, one of these two is the most popular payment method for online shopping. Only in the Netherlands, the most popular payment method isn't PayPal or VISA. Let's have a look at the top 3 per country.