PayPal Holdings Inc. has launched a new platform, PayPal World, aimed at bridging domestic digital wallets with global commerce, as the payments giant moves to expand its international footprint.
The new offering enables interoperability between local wallet providers and PayPal, allowing users to make cross-border payments and online purchases without creating a new PayPal account. Initial partners include Mercado Pago (owned by MercadoLibre), India’s UPI (Unified Payments Interface), and Tencent’s Tenpay Global.
“PayPal World is a first-of-its-kind payments ecosystem that will bring together many of the world’s largest payment systems and digital wallets on a single platform,” Alex Chriss, President and CEO of PayPal said in a statement.
“The challenge of moving money across borders is incredibly complex, and yet this platform will make it so simple for nearly two billion consumers and businesses. We believe the changes we are announcing today have the potential to be a real game changer over time.”
PayPal said its new PayPal World platform will allow PayPal and Venmo users to send money globally—even to recipients without a PayPal account. For example, travelers in China can use PayPal to make payments via the Weixin network at local businesses.
Conversely, an Indian shopper purchasing from a U.S. website can check out using their UPI wallet through the PayPal interface.
The scale of these wallet systems is significant, with massive user bases and transaction volumes. Mercado Pago processed $58.3 billion in payments in the first quarter of 2025 alone. In India, UPI transactions surpassed $238 billion in June, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Meanwhile, China’s Tenpay is advancing efforts to improve its remittance infrastructure and expand cross-border peer-to-peer payment capabilities.
“We are glad that Tenpay Global, Tencent’s cross-border payment platform, will support users of PayPal and Venmo in making payments by scanning Weixin Pay1 QR codes, further expanding access for global digital wallets to transact in the mainland of China. In addition to payments, Tenpay Global will deepen its collaboration with PayPal World in remittances,” Wenhui Yang, CEO of Tenpay Global, said.
PayPal World is scheduled to roll out this fall in collaboration with its initial launch partners.
