Wirecard Enables Chinese Mobile Payment Methods on Board Tallink Grupp Ships

ASCHHEIM, Germany and TALLINN, Estonia, March 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

• Around 500,000 tourists benefit from fully digital payment solutions on Tallink Grupp's vessels
• By providing innovative digital payment solutions to one of the leading transportation providers in the Baltic Sea region, Wirecard further strengthens its position in the travel industry

Wirecard, the global innovation leader in digital financial technology, is enabling Tallink Grupp to accept the most popular Chinese payment methods, such as Alipay, onboard its fleet. Tallink Grupp is the leading passenger and cargo transportation service provider in the Northern region of the Baltic Sea and operates 14 vessels on seven different routes. The growing share of passengers from the Far East will benefit greatly from this cooperation to pay for goods and services onboard with their preferred payment methods. The integration was realized together with Wirecard partner Cimple Marketing.

In 2018, Tallink Grupp carried a total of 9.8 million passengers. Asian tourists are one of the largest customer groups for the company, with the number of Chinese passengers growing steadily over the last few years.

Paul Noorkõiv, Tallink Grupp's Vice CIO, said, "It is important that we take our Chinese customers' shopping preferences into account. According to our customer value proposal to offer an enjoyable travel experience, we make it as comfortable as possible for our guests to pay for goods, offering them the same options they are used to from back home. The collaboration with Wirecard allows us to deliver a seamless payment process to enhance the guest experience onboard."

Jan Rübel, Head of Sales Travel & Transport at Wirecard, added, "When traveling abroad, Chinese tourists are most likely to spend their money on duty free and retail shopping. Studies show that this target audience will buy even more if they can use their preferred payment methods." Stephan Ritzenhoff, Head of Partner Management, Travel & Mobility at Wirecard, said, "Together with Cimple Marketing, we are pleased to help the Tallink and Silja Lines tap into this potential by enabling them to accept popular Chinese digital payment methods onboard their ships."

The partnership benefits Chinese customers who can pay cashless on Tallink's ships as if they were in their home country, without the need to exchange cash into a foreign currency. In addition, they can also take advantage of special offers and coupons. By introducing such a comprehensive payment approach, fully digitized payment methods are also lucrative for merchants and suppliers.

About Wirecard:

Wirecard (GER:WDI) is one of the world's fastest growing digital platforms in the area of financial commerce. We provide both corporate clients and consumers with a constantly expanding ecosystem of real-time value added services built around innovative digital payments by using an integrated B2B2C approach. This ecosystem concentrates on solutions in the areas payment and risk, retail and transaction banking, loyalty and coupon programs in addition to data analytics and conversion rate enhancement across all sales channels (online, mobile, ePOS). Wirecard operates regulated financial institutions in several key markets, in addition to holding issuing and acquiring licenses from all major payment and card networks. Wirecard AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (DAX and TecDAX, ISIN DE0007472060). Visit us on www.wirecard.com, follow us on Twitter @wirecard and on Facebook @wirecardgroup.

About Tallink Grupp:

AS Tallink Grupp is the leading passenger and cargo transportation service provider in the Northern region of the Baltic Sea. The company owns 14 vessels and operates under the brands of Tallink and Silja Line on 7 different routes. AS Tallink Grupp employs more than 7,400 people in the region and nearly 9.8 million passengers travelled on its ferries in 2018. AS Tallink Grupp is listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq Helsinki.

Wirecard media contact:

Wirecard AG
Jana Tilz
Tel.: +49(0)89-4424-1363
Email: [email protected]

Tallink Grupp media contact:

AS Tallink Grupp
Katri Link
Tel: +372-53-042-121
Email: [email protected]