GlobalCollect Opens Shanghai Office to Support Asia Pacific E-commerce
Netherlands-based payment services provider GlobalCollect said it has opened a Shanghai office as part of the development of its Asia Pacific operations and plans further expansion in Beijing, Japan and Australia to support customer growth.
The group, which opened its regional headquarters in Singapore in 2008, added that the new office is located in Shanghai’s International Finance Centre (IFC), in the heart of Pudong’s Lujiazui financial trade zone.
“Business in China is driven by ‘Guanxi’, the cultural concept of connections and networks. Opening offices in Shanghai and Beijing enables GlobalCollect to get closer to our customers and foster stronger relationships than supporting them from afar,” said Mark Patrick, GlobalCollect’s general manager for the Asia Pacific region.
GlobalCollect noted that while Europe and the US have already reached a high level of maturity in electronic commerce (e-commerce), most of the Asia Pacific region is still very much in a developmental state.
With nearly two-thirds of the world’s population residing in Asia and internet and mobile access growing exponentially, the opportunity for growth is unmatched globally. In 2011, China’s domestic online payment volume alone exceeded US$350bn, with cross border payments exceeding US$9bn.