VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The People's Bank of China will allow foreigners to spend up to $2,000 annually on Alipay without ID registration, while Ant Group raises single transaction limits to $5,000 from $1,000.

Investments in Chinese tech companies had a 50% surge in the first quarter of 2016. Nevertheless, many of the investments were spent in the big startups.

Alipay is working on a plan to launch services in Europe this summer. The service will make it easier Chinese tourists to make transactions with European merchants using the app.

To tackle volatility in the US banking market, regulators are enacting new laws time to time directing to absorb new technologies. Adoption of automated technologies coupled with aggression by fintech startups. A recent Citigroup study predicts that US banking sector may witness 30% job cutts by 2025.

Samsung Pay has launched today in China trying to get a better position from its rival, Apple Pay and Alipay. Shoppers who use Samsung smartphones compatible with the company's newly launched mobile payment service will be able to pay for their purchases even without using a debit or credit card.

Apple Pay is targeting China as its largest market. The mobile payment system was released Thursday and was hoping to convince retailers to use the system since there are hundred million users of Apple. A lot of banks will support Apple Pay including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba Group is planning to make yet another investment plan for the media segment. The Chinese media reports reveal that Alibaba may acquire SCMP Group, which runs China Daily.

China's Ant Financial Services Group, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's (BABA.N) internet finance affiliate, closed a private placement valuing the unit at about $45 billion, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) and its finance affiliate accelerated a drive to be a full-fledged Chinese online financial network, with the launch on Thursday of an e-commerce tracking stock index and plans for a June start of an internet bank.

Ant Financial Services Group, Alibaba's affiliate which runs online payment platform Alipay, is seeking to raise up to $4 billion in a private placement of shares and is looking at a domestic IPO in 2017, the state-run Shanghai Securities News reported.

China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) plans a major move to win U.S. business this year, by offering American retailers new ways to sell to China's vast and growing middle class.

The share of mobile transactions on Alipay, the online payment platform affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, jumped to 54 percent of all transactions in the first 10 months of the year from 22 percent during the whole of last year, the company said.

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Thursday it has changed the name of its Alipay financial services affiliate to Ant Financial Services Group as it steps up its push into the financial services industry.

PayPal's biggest threat as it prepares to split from eBay (EBAY.O) next year may come from former employees who back a crop of new businesses serving shoppers who increasingly prefer to pay with mobile phones rather than personal computers.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's finance arm has been given government approval to set up a private bank, China's banking regulator said on Monday, the latest step in the e-commerce company's push into the financial services sector.