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Sing Tao Daily Interviews Evonet President Remas Ho: Breaking Down Cross-Border Payment Barriers with Proprietary Technology and One-Stop Solutions

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This article is republished from the special supplement of Sing Tao Daily dated August 31, 2026. In an exclusive interview, Evonet President Remas Ho shares how the company helps businesses expand across Asia and global markets through its intelligent payment gateway, localized payment channels across Asia, and comprehensive global compliance framework.

The original article follows:
 
In recent years, emerging digital services such as online gaming, paid short-form dramas, and AI tools have become key growth drivers for businesses expanding into overseas markets. Yet in Asia, a fragmented payments landscape, relatively high transaction decline rates, and complex cross-jurisdictional compliance requirements continue to pose significant challenges, creating a “last-mile” barrier for many cross-border businesses seeking to establish and scale their local operations.
 
Evonet, a provider of cross-border payment technologies and solutions, is addressing these challenges through its self-developed intelligent payment gateway, localized payment channels across Asia, and robust global compliance framework.This year, Evonet also received the “HKIM Market Leadership Award – Market Leadership in Payment System 2025/2026.”Sing Tao Daily spoke with Evonet President Remas Ho to learn more about the company’s approach to helping clients deepen their presence in Asia while building for global growth.
 

Addressing a Fragmented Market

Overcoming the Challenges of Global Expansion

In cross-border commerce, the stark differences between payment systems in Western and Asian markets have become one of the key reasons many businesses encounter difficulties when expanding overseas. According to Remas, Western markets are largely dominated by card networks such as Visa and Mastercard, resulting in relatively standardized and uniform transaction models. Asia, by contrast, is highly fragmented: significant differences in culture, regulation, and consumer behavior across countries and regions have created a diverse payments landscape that cannot simply replicate the models used in Western markets.
 
“In several Southeast Asian countries, credit card penetration remains below 10%, and a large proportion of consumers are not accustomed to using credit cards for online purchases. In markets such as the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, consumers rely more heavily on local payment methods, including e-wallets, over-the-counter payments at convenience stores, and real-time bank transfers. Businesses that continue to operate with a Western-market mindset and rely solely on credit card payments risk losing a significant share of potential customers.”
 
Since its inception, Evonet has positioned itself as “the global payments expert that understands Asia best,” with “Grow Globally, Pay Locally” at the heart of its strategy.
 
“Today, our payment network spans more than ten countries and regions and integrates over 100 localized payment channels. These include convenience store payments in Japan, PromptPay in Thailand, Touch ’n Go in Malaysia, GrabPay in Singapore, as well as Alipay and WeChat Pay in mainland China. This enables cross-border merchants to connect more effectively with local consumer segments across different markets.”

 

In many Southeast Asian markets, credit card ownership remains limited, with consumers relying more heavily on local payment methods such as e-wallets, over-the-counter payments at convenience stores, and real-time bank transfers.

Proprietary Intelligent Payment Gateway

Dual Technology Advantages to Boost Transaction Conversion

As the digital economy continues to evolve, customer acquisition costs have kept rising, making traffic conversion an increasingly critical factor in the profitability of overseas expansion.
 
“Many merchants invest heavily in advertising to drive traffic, only to see users abandon their purchases due to system failures during payment, channel congestion, transaction declines, page latency, and other issues. This results in a double loss of both traffic and acquisition spend.”

Remas noted that, to address this pain point, Evonet has developed its own intelligent payment gateway, using proprietary technologies to overcome the limitations of traditional payment systems and significantly improve both transaction success rates and the overall payment experience.
 
“Traditional cross-border payment systems typically rely on a single, fixed transaction route. Once a clearing bank becomes overloaded or a payment channel encounters an issue, the transaction may be declined outright, with little room for recovery. Our intelligent dynamic routing technology analyzes multiple dimensions of data in real time, including transaction data, consumer payment preferences, success rates across clearing channels, and processing costs. Within milliseconds, it identifies the clearing route with the highest probability of success at the lowest cost for each transaction, helping reduce unnecessary declines at the source.”
 
In addition, Evonet’s intelligent retry and flexible rerouting capabilities are designed to address order abandonment caused by abnormal or interrupted transactions.
 
“When a transaction is declined due to insufficient available credit, a temporary channel failure, or similar issues, the system does not simply display a payment failure message. Instead, it can automatically reorganize secured transaction data for a second authorization attempt, or present localized payment guidance that prompts the user to switch to an alternative payment method, such as a local e-wallet or bank transfer, to complete the payment.”

Remas also pointed out that issues such as “payment completed but goods not delivered” or “duplicate charges caused by network latency” are not uncommon in the market. These problems can not only harm consumers’ interests, but also seriously damage a merchant’s brand reputation.
 
“Our intelligent payment gateway monitors payment nodes throughout the entire transaction process in real time and feeds transaction data back to the system, helping reduce failed conversions. This allows merchants to preserve the value of acquired traffic while significantly improving the consumer payment experience and encouraging repeat purchases.”
Evonet’s intelligent retry and flexible rerouting capabilities help address order abandonment caused by transaction disruptions, improving the consumer payment experience and encouraging repeat purchases.

 

Comprehensive Licensing and Direct Connections

Strengthening Fund Security

Compliance and fund security form the foundation of the cross-border payments industry. As financial regulation continues to tighten worldwide, comprehensive licensing and robust information security capabilities have become key considerations for merchants when selecting a payment partner. Evonet has established a secure payment framework spanning multiple markets.
 
“In terms of licensing, we hold a Money Service Operator (MSO) licence in Hong Kong and a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). We are also recognized by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) as a third-party card payment processor, giving us the qualifications required to operate legally across multiple markets. In addition, we are directly connected members and licensed partners of major international card networks including Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, JCB, Diners and Discover, as well as leading payment platforms such as Octopus in Hong Kong, Alipay and WeChat Pay. These capabilities represent one of our greatest competitive strengths.”
 
Remas explained:
 
“Direct connections with card networks and payment networks allow us to streamline transaction flows by reducing multiple layers of third-party intermediation, significantly improving settlement efficiency. They also help eliminate intermediary costs, enabling us to offer merchants more competitive processing fees. In addition, direct clearing and settlement of funds allows us to manage reconciliation and clearing independently, eliminating the risks of bad debt or delayed fund transfers by intermediaries and helping safeguard merchants’ funds.
 
From an information security perspective, Evonet holds PCI DSS Level 1 certification, the highest level of payment card data security certification, as well as ISO 27001 information security management certification. These standards help protect the transaction data of both merchants and consumers and prevent unauthorized disclosure.”

 

Focusing on Emerging Digital Industries:

Supporting Business Expansion

For high-growth emerging industries such as online gaming, paid short-form dramas, AI-powered digital tools, and SaaS subscription services, Evonet provides tailored, one-stop cross-border payment solutions designed to support frequent, recurring, low-value cross-border transactions and address industry pain points including high chargeback rates, high market expansion costs, and complex technical integration.
 
“On the technical integration side, we offer rapid integration through a single API. With just one development effort, merchants can enable credit card payments alongside more than 100 localized payment channels across Asia. If they later expand into new markets such as Thailand, Vietnam, or Indonesia, there is no need for additional development. New services can be activated directly from the backend, shortening time to market for overseas expansion and significantly reducing technical costs.”
 
To better support subscription-based and micropayment models, Evonet has also built automated recurring payment capabilities and a tokenized payment credential storage system.
 
“While ensuring the security of funds, we are able to provide seamless automatic renewals and near-instant micropayments, improving the long-term payment experience for users. At the same time, our built-in AI-powered anti-fraud and risk management engine analyzes data such as user devices, IP addresses, transaction frequency, and historical behavior in real time to intelligently assess transaction risk and identify potentially fraudulent orders before they are completed. This is complemented by an automated chargeback dispute tool that uses AI to organize transaction evidence, helping merchants handle chargeback disputes more efficiently and reduce financial losses.”
 
According to Remas, Evonet is currently providing services to internationally recognized game publishers and internet brands including Tencent, Xiaomi, and Transsion, supporting their expansion into Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian markets.
 
“With transaction authorization completed within seconds and a diverse range of localized payment channels, we have successfully addressed payment delays experienced by gamers, contributing to significant growth in merchants’ top-up volumes and revenue.”

Recognized with a Market Leadership Award:

Exploring New Frontiers with AI

Standing out among numerous payment service providers, Evonet received the HKIM Market Leadership Award – Market Leadership in Payment System 2025/2026, a recognition that reflects the company’s achievements in the industry.
 
Remas said he was delighted with the award, noting that it represents industry recognition of Evonet’s years of commitment to the Asian market and its continued investment in proprietary technology development.
 
“Today, the Group has a professional team of several hundred people, with technology R&D centers in Shanghai and Wuxi. We continue to advance our technologies and optimize our products. This award will serve as a strong source of motivation for the team to keep innovating and contributing to the industry.”
 
Looking ahead to the continued evolution of the global digital economy, Evonet has also mapped out its next phase of expansion.
 
“While consolidating our strengths in the Asian market, we plan to apply for additional financial licenses across Europe and the United States, with the aim of building a more seamless global payment network and supporting Asian businesses as they expand into Western markets.
 
On the technology front, we will focus on developing generative AI-powered conversational payment solutions, enabling users to move seamlessly through consultation, product selection, and payment with the support of AI. At the same time, we plan to integrate marketing tools such as loyalty programs and cashback into the payment system, helping merchants increase repeat purchases and strengthen customer engagement.”
 
Remas concluded:
 
“Looking ahead, we will continue to enhance our global service network and provide professional, secure, and efficient one-stop cross-border payment solutions, with the goal of becoming a trusted financial partner for businesses expanding across Asia and building a global presence.”

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