Clara Shi, CEO of WorldFirst, announces plans to launch World Account services in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian markets.
November 22, 2023, Philippines — WorldFirst, a one-stop digital payment and financial services platform for cross-border trade SMEs, recently announced its plan to launch e-commerce digital finance solutions in new Southeast Asian markets in 2023 and 2024. The company aims to help online sellers achieve growth with secure, fast, and reliable cross-border payment and financial services. In addition, sellers get easy one-stop connection to multiple global marketplaces.
Building on its success in China, Singapore, and other markets, WorldFirst will introduce the suite of solutions through World Account to Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia. These solutions facilitate global selling, management, and growth for SMEs.
Selling With World Account
SMEs can open a multi-currency World Account within minutes and trade like a local around the world. World Account supports 42 currencies to over 200 global markets, which facilitates global sourcing. It also enables local collection in 30 currencies from more than 120 e-marketplaces. WorldFirst’s access to 40 local fast payment schemes worldwide supports this feature.
Traditional service providers often deny SMEs access to global multi-currency pooling. With World Account, however, funds paid into sellers’ local collection accounts instantly pool into the available balance.
Managing and Growing Across Marketplaces
During the crucial scaling-up stage, SMEs often struggle to manage multiple stores across different e-marketplaces and entities. World Account provides a single user-friendly portal for sellers to manage their growing operations across countries and marketplaces. Sellers can tier stores, e-marketplaces, and entities. They can also customize account statements for reconciliation.
For growth, WorldFirst launched its Global Voyage program in 2022. Thanks to strong partnerships with global marketplaces, the program offers hassle-free one-stop store opening services. An expedited process across 28 partner e-commerce platforms cuts set-up time to within 24 hours. In addition, sellers can find a broad array of value-added professional services through WorldFirst. These range from online advertising and logistics to website development and management.
“Building on our global fintech capabilities and strong success in China, Singapore and other markets, we are confident our secure and fast cross-border payment and e-commerce enablement services can help small businesses in Southeast Asia extend their international footprint,” said Clara Shi, CEO of WorldFirst and Vice President of Ant Group.
Security and Market Impact
WorldFirst prioritizes the safety and security of client transactions above all else, backed by a leading fraud prevention track record in the industry. It partners with banks and financial institutions to safeguard client funds, including eight Globally Systemically Important Banks.
A report by the EU-ASEAN Business Council finds that cross-border digital payment systems are a key catalyst to e-commerce growth. They make it easier for small businesses to find new customers by accessing new regional and global markets and managing their payments. In Singapore, SME clients of WorldFirst experienced a 70% increase in their monthly GMV between October and January 2023.
