UnionPay International (UPI) and PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL), today announced a global partnership where both companies will work together to accelerate the growth of their networks.

As part of the agreement, PayPal has committed to supporting UPI acceptance globally where PayPal is accepted – giving UnionPay cardholders more choice when shopping. In the future, UPI will explore opportunities to support PayPal’s merchant and consumer ambitions in China.

“At PayPal, we are proud of this landmark agreement with UnionPay International and the global impact that this creates for our joint customers, building on our status as the first foreign payments platform licensed to process online payments in China,” said Jim Magats, senior vice president of global payments, PayPal. “The partnership will give UnionPay customers more choice when shopping cross border and has the ability to contribute to the overall growth of China’s e-commerce ecosystem. It will also give PayPal the opportunity to explore the option to expand PayPal’s digital wallet to physical retail locations where UnionPay is accepted in China, or internationally.”

UnionPay cards can now be added to PayPal wallets in Australia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. During 2020, PayPal and UPI plan to add more than 30 markets, which means that once a UnionPay card is added to the PayPal wallet these cardholders will have the ability to shop at any of the 24 million merchants globally where PayPal is accepted via the PayPal wallet.

As part of the agreement, PayPal and UPI have also committed to collaborating to better serve joint customers and merchants to grow digital payments in China and globally. This will include the opportunity for PayPal customers from around the world to use PayPal at the merchants where UnionPay is accepted.

“With about 130 million UnionPay cards issued outside mainland China, UnionPay cards are becoming an important payment option of more and more global customers,” said Larry Wang, vice president, UnionPay International. “We are very glad to deepen collaboration with PayPal, the global leader in e-commerce. Both parties will jointly explore and implement the application of new products and new payment modes in the field of cross-border payment, hoping to better serve our cardholders and create greater value for both sides.”

The global partnership also includes a commitment from both companies to create joint customer awareness campaigns to “Pay with UnionPay” at PayPal merchants worldwide.