agoda to Accept UnionPay Card Payments across Desktop and Mobile

SHANGHAI, Dec. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- UnionPay International announced today the signing of a comprehensive cooperation agreement with agoda, one of the world's fastest-growing online travel booking platforms. The Simplified Chinese version of agoda.com currently accepts UnionPay cards, and under this new agreement, UnionPay will be accepted by agoda.com in all languages available and agoda's mobile app by the end of April 2018, offering safer and easier online payment experiences to UnionPay cardholders worldwide.

The online acceptance network of UnionPay cards covers more than 10 million merchants in over 200 countries and regions. With the rapid increase of UnionPay card issuance overseas, the accumulated card issuance outside Mainland China has exceeded 84 million, accompanied with more usage scenarios and acceptance points for UnionPay cardholders.

"In recent years, we have not only provided convenient payment services for Chinese people to travel abroad, but also accelerated the localization progress of UnionPay's online and offline businesses." said Cai Jianbo, CEO of UnionPay International. First, enriching product functions of UnionPay cards issued overseas for online payment and contactless payment, to offer different payment options; Second, using innovation as an important driving force to popularize UnionPay cards' overseas purchasing for mobile payment products; Third, innovating on business expansion models like sharing the UnionPay Chip Card standards to quicken the business expansion of UnionPay in overseas markets. At present, the transaction volume of overseas UnionPay cardholders has exceeded the cross-border turnover of domestic cardholders, a sign of UnionPay cards becoming more prominent for international payment.

agoda is one of the fastest-growing online travel platforms worldwide, providing over 1.8 million accommodation options worldwide with service and support in 38 different languages across desktop, iOS and Android. The comprehensive cooperation between UnionPay International and agoda not only contributes to the rapid enablement of UnionPay card acceptance at all agoda channels, but will also be followed by the launch of exclusive privileges and attractive benefits for UnionPay cardholders.

COO of agoda, John Wroughton Brown, said agoda is partnering UnionPay International to promote online payment and mobile payment for UnionPay cardholders overseas. Chinese consumers are already familiar with UnionPay cards and like to use them when booking on agoda. This cooperation will bring about more users worldwide to agoda and drive more online transactions for UnionPay International. In future, both parties will deepen and widen their cooperation in different areas.