PayPal helps China’s game companies deepen global operations with its global payment capabilities

(Source: Economic Daily)
Source: Economic Daily
On July 31, the technology and digital mobile payments platform PayPal made an appearance at the 23rd China International Digital Interactive Entertainment Exhibition (2026 ChinaJoy). On site, PayPal engaged in in-depth exchanges with global game developers, publishers, and industry partners, sharing trends in overseas game markets and payments, and showcasing its global capabilities in collections and payments and risk management for the gaming and digital entertainment industry.
A report on the (2025 China Gaming Industry) released by the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association shows that in 2025, the actual overseas sales revenue of self-developed games reached USD 20.455 billion, up 10.23% year over year. With rising customer acquisition costs, accelerated cross-platform publishing, and the emergence of self-operated top-up websites (Web Shops), game companies’ focus has shifted from chasing short-term download numbers to enhancing players’ lifetime value (LTV) and global operational efficiency.
The rise of cross-platform releases and self-operated top-up websites (Web Shops) is accelerating the development of the direct-to-consumer (DTC) model. Publishers can more directly capture first-party data in their private domain, and increase player value through multiple monetization models such as in-game services, subscriptions, DLC, and virtual goods. However, when transaction scenarios extend to self-operated channels, businesses also face new challenges, including multi-currency access, tax compliance, refunds and chargebacks, account takeover, and fraud. How to balance localization preferences, seamless experiences, and secure risk control has become an important issue for Chinese game companies to deepen their global operations.
According to reports, leveraging its vast global network and deep industry experience, PayPal provides one-stop payment solutions for overseas game publishers.
The 2025 PayPal Global Beat report shows that games and digital goods have become one of the top five热门 categories of Chinese goods that global consumers purchase through PayPal. With coverage of nearly 200 markets and over 400 million active accounts, PayPal not only helps Chinese game companies connect with a broader base of overseas players, but also, through massive transaction insights, assists businesses in precisely identifying consumption trends in different markets.
As introduced, after serving the games and digital entertainment industry for a long time, PayPal is fully compatible with one-time purchases, in-game services, subscriptions, DLC, and the sale of various digital goods. This helps publishers build highly adaptable payment and collection experiences for players throughout their lifecycle. Relying on the PayPal Open global payments platform, game companies only need to integrate once to access PayPal and multiple payment methods commonly used by overseas consumers, reducing the complexity of managing multiple platforms and providing players with a smoother checkout experience across official websites, Web Shops, and other digital sales scenarios.
Meanwhile, through PayPal’s continuously optimized branded payment experience, user drop-off during checkout can be effectively reduced. Relevant surveys show that 74% of PayPal users are more likely to shop on unfamiliar websites that offer PayPal as a payment option; using a PayPal wallet can bring a 46% increase in checkout conversion rate. In addition, as transaction scenarios extend to self-operated channels, risks such as account takeover, unauthorized transactions, virtual item fraud, and malicious chargebacks have become increasingly prominent. Relying on its global risk management technology and intelligent risk control system, PayPal provides around-the-clock monitoring for transactions.
According to statistics, in 2025 PayPal protected a payment volume of approximately $1.79 trillion in total, continuously identifying abnormal behavior and potential fraud to help businesses reduce transaction risks and losses from chargebacks. For large enterprises and fast-growing merchants, PayPal can also provide flexible enterprise-level risk control models that combine global payment network, data insights, and risk management capabilities—enhancing security while reducing misjudgments of real players, and supporting businesses in steadily expanding into overseas markets.
During the exhibition, the PayPal team will engage in in-depth exchanges with industry partners on core topics such as differences in overseas game markets, DTC operations, overseas players’ payment preferences, and cross-border transaction risk management. In the future, PayPal says it will continue to build and improve its cross-border payment products and services by relying on its global payment network, technological capabilities, and localized service experience, working with more Chinese game companies to expand into international markets and jointly promote high-quality growth in China’s digital entertainment industry. (Economic Daily reporter Chen Guojing)