SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Aug. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- UnionPay International (UPI) today announced its partnership with Cardnet, the largest acquirer in the Dominican Republic, to enable UnionPay acceptance at all Cardnet merchants. This is the first time that UnionPay card services are made available in the country. The UnionPay acceptance network has thus extended to 181 countries and regions, covering more than 37 million merchants outside the Chinese mainland.
In recent years, UPI has stepped up its effort in extending and enhancing its overseas acceptance network, and the offline card usage environment has continued to be optimized. In the first half of this year, more than 1.7 million merchants outside the Chinese mainland enabled UnionPay acceptance, significantly improving the user experience in Europe, North America, and other places, and the number of online UnionPay merchants increased to 22 million. Mobile payment services have been developing rapidly, with 13 million merchants in 95 countries and regions outside the Chinese mainland supporting UnionPay QR or mobile QuickPass. The latest survey by Juniper Research, a British consulting firm, shows that UPI has become one of the global leaders in QR payment.
The Dominican Republic is one of the largest economies in the Caribbean region. The partnership with Cardnet enables about 30,000 POS terminals to take UnionPay cards, boosting the local acceptance coverage to nearly 50% in a short period of time with a focus on optimizing cardholder experience in hotels, airports, retailers and F&B merchants. The collaboration will satisfy the demand of business travelers to the country for essential purchases and facilitate the people-to-people exchanges between China and the Dominican Republic.
With its strengths in the network, UPI is striving to serve more international cardholders and support China's mutual exchanges with the rest of the world. Over 190 million UnionPay cards have been issued in more than 70 countries and regions around the world, of which 30 countries and regions have also rolled out 140 UnionPay-powered e-wallets, providing local residents with quality mobile payment services based on UnionPay cards.
