Travel Megatrends 2021: The Rise of Global Mobile Wallets Upends Travel Payments
Photo Credit: Mobile payments using Alipay's iOS app. Alipay
Skift Take
The pandemic kickstarted a second payment revolution, and by 2025 travelers were in even more control of how they booked their trips and spent their money during their wanderings.
Superapps, social media, and cryptocurrencies collided in 2025, with established travel technology players and a new wave of payment service integrators nearly stripping out the last remnants of friction for many consumers.
The superapp concept spread well beyond Asia. Large swathes of the population were stuck in their homes during the 2020 pandemic, and that necessity of shopping online, and ordering takeaways, caused mobile payments to soar.
Inspired by WeChat Pay, more social media firms designed their own curr
