Interview with Ant International Vice President Shi Wenyi: From Selling Goods Globally to Cross-Border Operations, Three Major Trends Emerging

21st Century Business Herald Reporter Zhou Yanyan

“Go overseas or fall behind.” In recent years, this phrase has become a true reflection of Chinese companies.

According to Shi Wenyí, Vice President of Ant International and CEO of Wanlihui, the logic of going global has undergone a fundamental shift—evolving from simply “selling goods worldwide” to a deeper level of “transnational operation.”

“Previously, our cross-border trade was ‘goods flying globally’; people didn’t go out, and the entities didn’t go out either. But today, things have changed.” In an interview with 21st Century Business Herald, Shi Wenyí said that since 2020, Chinese companies’ overseas expansion has entered the “3.0 stage,” with digital trade, normalized overseas operations, and the “three new” trends emerging. This is gradually achieving a high-quality upgrade from “product exports” to “service exports, digital exports, and brand exports.”

Wanlihui (WorldFirst), led by Shi Wenyí, is a leading player in cross-border trade payments. Originating in the UK and acquired by Ant Group in 2019, this payment service provider has served over 1.5 million global clients by last year, with a total transaction volume exceeding $500 billion. But Wanlihui is just one piece of Ant International’s service ecosystem for Chinese companies going abroad—Alipay+ connects global mobile payment methods, Antom serves global merchants’ acquiring needs, Wanlihui provides global account services, and Bettr focuses on scenario-based finance. These four brands form a complete cross-border service ecosystem.

Shi Wenyí believes that Wanlihui’s advantage lies in “not fighting alone but relying on Ant International to integrate multiple capabilities into the global account service system—originating from payments and surpassing payments.”

Shi Wenyí sees the current high-level opening-up and high-quality overseas opportunities for Chinese companies as built on three major leaps since the reform and opening-up.

The first leap occurred from 1990 to 2001, when China rapidly integrated into the global division of labor, shifting exports from primary products like agricultural and mineral resources to labor-intensive light industry processing exports.

The second leap happened from 2001 to 2020, transforming China from the “world’s factory” into a manufacturing powerhouse, with exports shifting from processing and assembly to precision manufacturing and brand exports.

The third leap, from 2020 to the present, is characterized by digital trade, normalized overseas operations, and the emergence of the “three new” trends, gradually upgrading from “product exports” to “service, digital, and brand exports” with high quality.

“Today, not only manufacturing but also the financial services industry is rapidly digitizing,” Shi Wenyí said. “Along with the transformation and upgrading of the real economy, services in trade finance are also digitizing in tandem.”

She recalled that in the first stage, traditional banks were essential service providers for companies going abroad. Their main concerns were secure remittances, with export letters of credit, bank guarantees, and TT telegraphic transfers being mainstream. In the second stage, companies pursued scale expansion, with export factoring, international forfaiting, and trade financing becoming accelerators for enlarging overseas markets.

“In the third stage, Ant International, including Wanlihui, is involved, especially in helping small and micro Chinese enterprises go abroad,” Shi Wenyí said. “We are actually filling a market gap because the outbound wave of small and micro enterprises is very strong, and traditional financial services are still relatively insufficient. That’s why our transaction volume hit a new high last year—driven by strong outbound demand.”

When companies truly enter a market and establish operations locally, they must face legal and compliance issues: What are the local tax costs? What are the compliance requirements? What does the ecosystem look like?

“Large enterprises have their own professional teams to handle these, but small and micro enterprises often don’t know where to start. So what we do is collaborate with local logistics, operational service partners, and other ecosystem collaborators to help small and micro enterprises solve these problems together,” Shi Wenyí explained. Wanlihui’s “Global Voyage” project provides a collaborative model. Currently, the project has established deep connections with European local e-commerce platforms like Bol.com, Cdiscount, Allegro, and Otto, supporting quick store openings and helping Chinese merchants integrate efficiently into local business networks. Meanwhile, collaborations with global platforms like Amazon and Walmart are also strengthening, forming a “global + local” dual-drive.

“Not all products are suitable for all markets. We act like a ‘matchmaker,’ bringing the most suitable parties together,” Shi Wenyí said with a smile.

Regarding different markets, Shi Wenyí pointed out that many Chinese companies’ first stop for overseas expansion is Southeast Asia, where the overall consumer market is growing, the economy is strong, young people are numerous, consumption power is high, and cultural similarities foster a sense of closeness.

In the European and American markets, she observes a trend of “the strong getting stronger.” “When a small or micro enterprise first considers going abroad, the US and Europe might not be their most competitive markets because those markets are already highly competitive. You’ll see more brand exports, meaning companies need to operate locally, including warehousing and after-sales services.”

The African market presents a different picture. “Many people without factories or manufacturing experience in China go to Africa to ‘take risks’ because they see the development of manufacturing in China over the past 30 years and believe they can’t miss the growth of the African market.”

Latin America is mostly seen as a “backup” for the US market—producing in close proximity to the US and selling there.

Recently, the Middle East market has become more complex. “Saudi Arabia has attracted a large number of Chinese infrastructure and manufacturing projects, and Dubai is one of the world’s top three trade ports. Recent US-Iran conflicts have directly impacted trade in this region, but in the medium to long term, we remain optimistic because the Middle East is a large market, and sellers won’t easily give up; the market still has strong purchasing power,” Shi Wenyí said.

When asked about the latest trends in Chinese companies going abroad, Shi Wenyí summarized three key points.

The first trend is market diversification.

“Previously, many Chinese merchants could do very well just focusing on the US market, but now, more and more are paying attention to and deploying in emerging markets, such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Overall, these emerging markets are growing far faster than traditional Europe and America—several times over,” Shi Wenyí explained.

The second trend is supply chain diversification.

“After the pandemic, this has become an unavoidable issue for both companies and countries,” Shi Wenyí said. “Manufacturing is shifting from the past single ‘global factory’ model to multi-regional manufacturing centers.”

Specifically, new manufacturing hubs are emerging worldwide: in Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand are typical first stops for Chinese companies; in Europe, Germany and Turkey are also becoming close-to-market bases; in the Americas, Mexico and Brazil are attracting significant Chinese investment.

“Last year, I visited Africa and was surprised to see so many Chinese companies establishing factories—not just traders, but real factories. For example, cement plants, tile factories, plastics, and food processing plants, all on a large scale,” Shi Wenyí said. “Many of the companies I contacted have investments of hundreds of millions of RMB.”

The third trend is the shift of industry expansion from manufacturing to services and digital fields.

“Today, going abroad is no longer just about manufacturing; more and more service industries are expanding globally. For example, digital entertainment, including gaming and short dramas, is also a form of cultural export,” she said.

She highlighted a case of short dramas going abroad. “Last July in London, I was amazed to see how deeply short dramas are being exported. It’s not just about translating Chinese content; it’s about integrating into each country’s context, producing locally, and distributing to local markets.”

She shared that many companies producing short dramas choose to produce English-language content in the UK. “The UK, as Shakespeare’s homeland, has a very mature film and TV industry. Although the local market has been relatively sluggish recently, Chinese short drama companies have revitalized it. One of our clients rented a large castle in the UK and shot short dramas with a production style similar to ‘Game of Thrones,’ filming 100 episodes in 15 days for continuous broadcast. Many stories are originally Chinese, but through AI technology, they are adapted into English-acceptable contexts. This field is very hot now.”

How does Wanlihui provide differentiated services for Chinese companies of different sizes going abroad?

“Even leading companies have areas that traditional finance cannot cover,” Shi Wenyí said. “For example, giants like Huawei and China Mobile don’t need Ant International or Wanlihui to handle tax or legal issues, but they have more fragmented needs. For instance, managing global employee travel—booking flights and hotels—we can solve this with travel cards. It may seem small, but it’s a real pain point for companies.”

Similarly, telecom companies sometimes face challenges in settling accounts with local merchants. “This is where our global account services, including split billing and global disbursement, come into play—we can cover over 100 countries and more than 100 currencies, which is a differentiated capability.”

For top-tier companies like TikTok, Ant International also has its entry points. “How to pay influencers and streamers across Southeast Asia and Mexico quickly and accurately? We have Southeast Asian wallets for merchant settlements and influencer disbursements, with API integration for one-click global disbursement.”

Shi Wenyí also mentioned that Ant International’s TST Eagle Sequence AI foreign exchange prediction model has served the aviation industry, helping AirAsia reduce FX hedging costs by 40%. “This model was originally developed to solve our own problems—selling globally on AliExpress across over 200 markets, where currency fluctuations like 1 yuan to 1.2 yuan happen in seconds. Now, with over 90% accuracy, it can help companies expand into multiple markets and avoid detours.”

For mid-tier companies, such as a construction firm operating in Africa, a practical issue is how to operate legally and compliantly locally, including repatriating funds. This is where global account services are especially needed.

For small and micro enterprises, the solution is simpler—one account for global payments and receipts. Multi-currency, multi-entity needs can be fully covered by a single global account without complex solutions.

“Our approach is layered and industry-specific, finding the right service model for each level,” Shi Wenyí summarized.

In cross-border payments, what is the relationship between Ant International and traditional banking systems?

“We hold licenses in over 100 countries and cooperate with more than 1,400 financial institutions worldwide,” Shi Wenyí said. “In real-time fund management, we work closely with thirteen systemically important banks, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, and JPMorgan Chase.”

“Today, about 50 countries have achieved local real-time payments, built through our cooperation,” she added. “This is a service infrastructure we provide to the industry, using blockchain-based global settlement technology, working with global banks to realize real-time fund transfers and improve turnover efficiency. We also focus on deep localization in key markets—building teams, products, and services—and lightweight coverage in other markets through over 500 local ecosystem partners, creating a win-win cooperation network.”

Shi Wenyí emphasized that Wanlihui’s advantage is “not fighting alone but relying on Ant International to integrate multiple capabilities into the global account service system, including global collection, global accounts, global payments, AI FX prediction models, and real-time treasury management—covering the entire outbound chain and supporting companies’ digital globalization. Originating from payments, but surpassing payments.”

“For example, our real-time global treasury management includes over 300 payment tools for acquiring, beyond card payments. Our strong wallet coverage is industry-leading,” she said. “Since 2014-2015, we’ve invested in Southeast Asian wallets, preparing for today. Our Alipay+ merchant service connects over 40 mobile payment methods worldwide, covering more than 100 markets, serving 150 million merchants and 1.8 billion consumer accounts globally.”

Regarding strategies for different markets, Shi Wenyí said: “In established markets, we aim to improve profitability. In new markets still in infrastructure development, we focus on expanding the market. Different stages require different strategies.”