Adobe Inc. (NasdaqGS: ADBE) recently disclosed a strategic partnership with Ant International intended to augment its payment and marketing solutions throughout Asia. This alliance comes amid a fluctuating tech landscape marked by U.S. restrictions on chip exports to China, which have broadly impacted the sector. Nevertheless, Adobe's decision to expand its digital marketing reach in a burgeoning market like Asia may have steadied its footing against these broader market challenges.
The newly forged collaboration aims to strengthen Adobe's presence across Asia, potentially accelerating revenue growth owing to heightened user adoption and broadened market reach. These developments align with Adobe's ongoing strategy, which focuses on leveraging its product suite and subscription models to foster growth in global tech markets. This move is noteworthy as of April 20, 2025.
In parallel, Ant International, through its merchant payment and digitization arm Antom, has engaged in multiple partnerships with prominent companies to advance payment solutions in the region. In January 2025, Booking.com announced a collaboration with Antom, seeking to deploy over 40 new payment options across key Asian markets, including Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines.
This partnership strives to tailor the customer experience with diverse payment methods like online banking, bank transfers, digital wallets, and local card payments. Prominent mobile wallets such as AlipayHK, Boost, GCash, GrabPay, Kakao Pay, Naver Pay, Touch 'n Go eWallet, and TrueMoney are slated to roll out initially. Antom's multi-currency offerings and cross-border settlement capabilities are expected to empower Booking.com’s global accommodation providers, particularly smaller properties and holiday rentals, to optimize payment acceptance while expanding their reach (source: businesswire.com).
Likewise, AirAsia MOVE, which was previously known as airasia Superapp, also partnered with Antom in January 2025. This collaboration is designed to integrate advanced payment solutions into AirAsia MOVE's platform, emphasizing the reduction of cross-border transaction costs and broadening the consumer base through a more diverse range of preferred payment options. By adopting Antom's payment orchestration and acquiring services, AirAsia MOVE aims to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction while offering considerable cost savings (source: businesswire.com).
These strategic partnerships underscore Antom's dedication to optimizing payment processes and enabling merchants to tap into renewed growth potential within the dynamic and fast-evolving Asian market.