News

KSA To Roll Out Google Pay And Alipay+ As Digital Payments Surge

Google Pay will arrive this year and Alipay+ by 2026 through mada, part of SAMA’s push to expand cashless payments under Vision 2030.

Published

1 year ago

September 16, 2025

Nour Nasir

ksa to roll out google pay and alipay+ as digital payments surge

Google Pay will soon launch in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom’s central bank confirmed during the Money20/20 Middle East conference in Riyadh. The move marks an expansion of the country’s digital payments ecosystem and supports its Vision 2030 target of lifting cashless transactions to 70% by 2025.

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has also signed an agreement with Ant International to deploy Alipay+ services by 2026. Both Google Pay and Alipay+ will be routed through mada, the national payments network, ensuring compatibility with domestic cards and retail systems.

SAMA described Google Pay as offering “an advanced and secure payments experience,” allowing users to provision and manage mada cards and credit cards directly in the Google Wallet app. Officials said the launch is part of wider efforts to strengthen infrastructure and support the Kingdom’s fintech ambitions.

The Alipay+ agreement will allow visitors to make purchases in Saudi Arabia using international wallets linked to the platform, streamlining cross-border transactions and reinforcing the Kingdom’s role as a payments hub.

Also Read: Uber To Add Blade Air Taxi Bookings Through Its App

Speaking in Riyadh, SAMA Governor Ayman Al-Sayari struck an optimistic note: the number of Saudi fintech firms jumped from 82 at the end of 2022 to around 281 by August 2025. He put cumulative sector investment at $2.39 billion and described the payments system as a standout success, with electronic payments making up 79% of retail transactions in 2024 — amounting to 12.6 billion transactions, up from 10.8 billion the year before.

Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan added that the Saudi financial market has reached nearly $640 billion, making it one of the fastest-growing globally. He said work is underway to integrate artificial intelligence into financial systems, part of broader reforms tied to Vision 2030.

Related Topics:Alipay FinTech Google Pay Saudi Arabia

Up Next

Fiverr Cuts 250 Jobs In Shift To “AI-First Company” Strategy

Don't Miss

Lebanon Creates First Ministry Of AI To Drive Digital Governance

Click to comment

News

Trip.com Is Betting An AI Agent Will Book Your Next Vacation

Abu Dhabi, Jazeera Airways and a run of hotel deals give the company more inventory. Its Mastercard demo says the most about where booking technology is headed.

Published

2 days ago

September 16, 2026

Nour Nasir

trip.com is betting an ai agent will book your next vacation

Most of what Trip.com Group announced at Arabian Travel Market 2026 this week reads like the standard expansion playbook of an online travel agency: a new agreement with a tourism board, a run of hotel partnerships, an airline deal. However, one item was considerably more interesting: a demonstration built with Mastercard of an AI agent that doesn’t just suggest trips but also pays for them.

trip.com tripgenie ai agent

The showcase put TripGenie, the company’s AI travel assistant, to work searching, selecting and completing purchases inside a single booking flow, with Mastercard’s Agent Suite for Merchants handling the payment step and Network International processing the transactions on the merchant side. It’s limited for now to attractions and ancillary services, but the partners plan a phased commercial rollout from early 2027.

“As traveller expectations change, technology and AI will play an increasingly important role in how people plan their journeys,” says Schubert Lou, CEO of Trip.com.

Meanwhile, in more conventional news, CEO Lou and Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry (Director General for Tourism at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi), signed an agreement building on the two organizations’ existing partnership, with joint marketing and Abu Dhabi destination content to be pushed across Trip.com Group’s platforms.

Also Read: Musk’s Boring Company Wants To Dig 150 KM Of Tunnel Under The UAE

On accommodation, the group expanded its partnerships with JA Hotels & Resorts, Ishraq Hospitality and Aleph Hospitality and deepened its work with Silkhaus, which brings vacation homes into a portfolio that has so far leaned on hotels. Jazeera Airways signed a strategic partnership intended to widen the Kuwaiti carrier’s reach and encourage earlier bookings, tied to Kuwait’s own tourism ambitions.

The company moved into a larger Dubai office earlier this year and describes its long-term aim as a two-way ecosystem: sending Middle East travelers abroad while drawing international visitors in.