The truth about global payments has been revealed by Airwallex

Core Viewpoint

01 Surface Homogeneity, Underlying Differentiation

When enterprise clients choose a payment platform, they are often confused by a question: the several payment companies they communicate with seem to have similar capabilities.

For example, hundreds of payment companies globally almost use a similar script to introduce their products: instant arrival, global coverage, serving modern enterprises, and even the functions and interfaces are becoming increasingly similar.

Everyone has global acquiring: by accessing a packaged Visa/MasterCard channel, they can claim "support for over 200 countries and regions";

Everyone has global accounts: by partnering with several banks, they can claim "one account for global collection, covering over 20 mainstream currencies".

The problem is that while the surface functions look increasingly alike, the underlying capabilities are vastly different.

Figure 2 Surface homogeneity cannot hide the huge underlying differences

Users cannot see the real differences between platforms in product introductions, which leads them to repeatedly scrutinize payment institutions regarding costs, backgrounds, licenses, risks, and more. Ultimately, what enterprise clients truly care about is not just the integration experience, but whether the funding chain is stable, whether the compliance system is robust, and whether they can smoothly expand into new markets. Therefore, to determine whether a payment platform is reliable, one must not only look at what the front end looks like but also see whether the platform retains complexity for itself or shifts it to the client.

02 Three Paths of Global Payments

Since we have clarified the core capabilities at the front end, we must return to the underlying structure and break down the common paths in this industry.

If we analyze the mainstream players in the industry, there are roughly three paths.

Figure 3 Three diverging paths in the evolution of global payments

2.1 First Path: Bypassing Traditional Channels

The first path: Web3 digital currency payments

On this path, a common story is often told: stablecoins, on-chain settlement, programmable payments, peer-to-peer payments. Compared to traditional payments, it can offer shorter paths, faster speeds, and lower costs; and it hopes to penetrate the consumer retail scene through a small-scale high-frequency narrative.

However, you will find that there are very few players born on this path of digital currency payments. The core reason is that it is not that this path lacks efficiency, but that new players have no alternative advantages in front of mainstream payment platforms, and there are too many compliance frictions that are difficult to resolve in the short term.

Figure 4 First path: On-chain settlement bypassing traditional channels Currently, mainstream global payment platforms not only have global payment networks but also deeply integrate into local ecosystems in various countries, building operational teams and forming comprehensive advantages in technology, service, compliance, and product layers for digital currency payments.

Technical aspect: Global payments are instant, merchant settlements to card D1/D0 are optional;
Service aspect: Under intense competition, payment costs are not high, and mature local operational teams serve clients down to the last mile;
Compliance aspect: Various jurisdictions have always had doubts about its compliance, leading to significant compliance friction;
Product aspect: Mainstream payment platforms also focus on stablecoin payments, and as soon as compliance policies are implemented, products can be integrated and replaced at any time.

Therefore, new players on this path will find that the options often only remain in fragmented markets that mainstream payment institutions are unwilling to serve and in gray or black market clients they dare not serve.

This is also why many who hold dreams of Web3 payment entrepreneurship ultimately have to exit quietly.

2.2 Second Path: Packaging Traditional Infrastructure

This is the path most people in the industry take: relying on partners and intermediaries to wrap the complex and outdated underlying architecture, then using better product experiences and faster marketing to drive market expansion.

The advantages of this path are also very obvious: quick results, fast expansion, and rapid coverage, making it a natural choice for most players.

But the problem is that it focuses more on optimizing the front end rather than rewriting the underlying structure. Jack Zhang's judgment on this point is very direct: the core issues remain unchanged, such as agency bank links, bilateral cooperation relationships, and compliance dependency risks, all still exist. At the same time, he believes, "A good-looking interface has long been standard, but it does not shake the underlying operational logic of global payments."

Figure 5 Second path: Aggregating gateways to package infrastructure

In fact, the fastest-growing global company, Stripe, was rejected in 2019 when it attempted to acquire Airwallex, and rumors of acquiring PayPal in 2026 (which was also ultimately rejected).

This at least indicates that even international payment giants that rapidly grow by relying on "technology + light asset connections" ultimately have to return to supplement the infrastructure course.

Many times, the seemingly lighter path does not mean avoiding infrastructure; it just means postponing it.

2.3 Third Path: Building Global Financial Infrastructure

This is the path chosen by companies like Airwallex, Ant International, Pingpong, and Lianlian International: obtaining licenses in the jurisdictions where they operate, localizing operations, maintaining regular communication with regulators, and trying to keep compliance, technology, and underlying networks in their own hands.

This path is the most challenging because it has almost no shortcuts. It requires continuous high investment, longer cycles, and also means heavier responsibilities. But Airwallex is more resolute in this regard, developing its own full-stack infrastructure and never using agents or intermediaries for transfers. This means they must spend heavily to hold licenses globally and maintain deep communication with local regulators as a licensed entity, continuously integrating with local compliance institutions, building local teams, and serving clients down to the last mile.

Figure 6 Third path: Building global infrastructure Such heavy asset investment will obviously make many people feel "not smart enough." In fact, who doesn't want to take shortcuts? It just depends on what kind of value you want to provide to your clients. If the underlying capabilities are still in the hands of others, the ones ultimately bearing the uncertainty will still be the clients.

03 The "Heavy" of the Platform Replaces the "Light" of the Client

For overseas enterprise clients, the most expensive thing has never been a payment fee, but those risks in the funding chain that are usually invisible but can be most fatal when problems arise.

For example, a market that has already been successfully navigated may suddenly have its bank account frozen; clients may have already paid for goods, but the funds are stuck halfway by the agent bank and cannot arrive for a long time; when regulatory rules tighten, additional materials, guarantees, and processes need to be supplemented.

These problems may not occur every day, but if they happen once, they are enough to disrupt the rhythm of the enterprise.

Figure 7 The "Heavy" of the Platform Replaces the "Light" of the Client Therefore, solidifying the infrastructure is essentially to retain the complexity that would originally fall on the client within its own system as much as possible, using its own "heavy" to exchange for the client's "light."

04 What Clients Truly Gain

Enterprise clients are very pragmatic; they are never buying concepts but rather the value they can obtain. In the field of cross-border payments, the so-called value actually boils down to three things: more stability, more savings, and more certainty.

Figure 8 The value that enterprise clients truly need

More stable, because enterprises do not need to adapt to a new set of cooperation relationships every time they enter a market.
More savings, not just in terms of fees, but also in reducing a large amount of redundant system costs, communication costs, and compliance costs.
More certainty, because when the market environment changes and regulatory rules tighten, clients rely not on a temporarily patched-up channel but on a more complete, durable, and cyclical underlying capability.

This is also why Airwallex's growth logic resembles compound interest rather than explosive growth.

Figure 9 The compound growth brought by infrastructure investment

According to public information, Airwallex achieved $500 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 9 years, while it only took one year to grow from $500 million to $1 billion. The earlier "slow" growth was not due to inefficiency but was accumulating underlying momentum for the subsequent acceleration.

05 Conclusion

Returning to the initial question, why does Airwallex build its own global financial infrastructure? Because the most difficult part is precisely the part that cannot be outsourced, is most worthy of long-term investment, and can create the most value for clients.

Figure 10 Underlying capabilities are the real watershed

For enterprise clients, choosing a global payment platform is essentially about selecting a long-term partner that can help digest complexity and provide a stable foundation for their business. For the global payment industry, shortcuts can help you run faster, but only by making the most difficult parts your own capabilities can you go further.

[References]

[1] Original text from Airwallex WeChat: The Tough Road is the Way Out

https://www.airwallex.com/cn/blog/the-path-of-max-resistance-the-spectrum-of-global-payments-infrastructure

[2] Original text from Airwallex WeChat: The Last Mile of Global Payments

https://www.airwallex.com/cn/blog/the-last-mile-of-global-payments

[3] Sina: Reshaping the Future of the Financial Industry

https://finance.sina.com.cn/cj/2025-10-11/doc-inftnpwr8889861.shtml

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