Chinese Sellers Shift Cross-Border E-Commerce Playbook, Ant International Unit CEO Says

1. Chinese cross-border e-commerce firms are shifting from a traditional export model to establishing fully localized multinational operations. This transition, spurred by tighter global regulations and higher standards from e-commerce platforms, significantly increases the demand for compliance, tax, and financial services. Shi Wenyi, the CEO of WorldFirst (an Ant International unit), highlighted these developments during a media interview, noting that formerly, management and legal operations largely remained in China even as goods were exported abroad. Now, as sellers localize operations, compliance and associated costs have risen in importance.[para. 1][para. 2][para. 3]

2. The tightening regulatory environment has resulted in new challenges for Chinese merchants operating overseas, especially increased legal costs and complex operational requirements. According to a WorldFirst survey from 2025, sellers view compliance, expanding onto local platforms, and ecosystem coordination as top priorities, with 43% citing compliance costs as their biggest challenge. In response, many merchants are systematically tackling tax, payment, and product regulations to meet the demands of international business expansion.[para. 4]

3. To help sellers adapt internationally, WorldFirst launched a merchant support program in 2022. The platform now offers cross-border payment services, foreign exchange management, financing, and has formed partnerships in tax, legal, logistics, and marketing. By 2025, WorldFirst served over 1.5 million business customers across more than 220 countries and regions, illustrating the global scale of their operations.[para. 5]

4. The overseas expansion of Chinese companies is also marked by increasing diversification, not only in products and services but also in the markets they target. Traditionally focused on the U.S., more companies are now entering emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where transaction growth is far outpacing that of Europe and North America. Southeast Asia is frequently the first expansion destination, with Europe and the U.S. remaining competitive markets for established brands. Latin America and Australia are playing strategic roles in manufacturing and inventory management.[para. 7][para. 8][para. 9]

5. Diversification is reshaping global supply chains, a trend that began during Trump’s first term and has since intensified. Chinese firms are moving away from a single global factory approach, instead establishing multi-regional production hubs. Countries themselves are encouraging local manufacturing as a path to greater supply chain security. Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand lead as Southeast Asian destinations, while Germany and Turkey are popular for European market access. In the Americas, Mexico and Brazil are major recipients of Chinese investment, and Chinese industrial migration is increasingly reaching even into Africa, where factories and processing plants are being constructed on a large scale.[para. 10][para. 11][para. 12][para. 13][para. 14]

6. Beyond manufacturing, Chinese companies’ global expansion now extends into services and digital sectors, including gaming, short-form video, and SaaS (software-as-a-service). Overseas, SaaS companies from China often have much higher valuations compared to their domestic counterparts, creating new opportunities for software providers, e-commerce tools vendors, and influencer-marketing specialists.[para. 15][para. 16][para. 17]

7. WorldFirst, founded in London in 2004 and acquired by Ant Group for about $700 million in 2019, now plays a central role in Ant's cross-border payments strategy. It has maintained annual compound growth above 50% in recent years. Although Europe and North America provide the largest revenue streams, WorldFirst is investing in deeper services in emerging markets to address complexities such as currency risks and lengthy settlement times. The platform’s innovative offerings include AI-powered foreign exchange forecasting, which can reduce FX costs by up to 60%, and blockchain-based global settlements enabling real-time fund transfers. In 2025 alone, WorldFirst’s transaction volume in emerging markets soared by more than 800%.[para. 18][para. 19][para. 20][para. 21][para. 22][para. 23][para. 24][para. 25]

8. Shi emphasized that WorldFirst gains a competitive edge by leveraging Ant International’s broader infrastructure, not operating in isolation. Ant International, spun off from Ant Group in March 2024, encompasses Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst, and Bettr, holds over 100 financial-service licenses, and operates in more than 200 countries and regions. Ant Group is considering a separate Hong Kong stock listing for Ant International, underscoring the strategic significance of the business.[para. 27][para. 28][para. 29][para. 30]