Alibaba Group's Ant Financial has implemented a merger with helloPay, the online payment platform of the Southeast Asia e-commerce site Lazada.

Starting from April 19, 2017, helloPay has been renamed to Alipay and will continue its operations in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines. However, after the rename, helloPay's original functions and services will remain unchanged and it will keep independent operation outside of Alipay.

With this move, Ant Financial aims to improve its reputation in markets where helloPay runs its business. No financial terms were disclosed about this deal.

In 2016, Alibaba invested USD1 billion in acquiring the controlling stake in Lazada, the so-called Amazon.com in Southeast Asia.