The 26th Harvard China Forum was held at Harvard University in Boston from April 7th to 9th, 2023. This grand event attracted thousands of global dignitaries and elites, becoming a media observation of the latest global trends in Chinese entrepreneurship. In the most popular “Entrepreneurship Forum”, Spencer Xu, the founder of Snaplii, a North American mobile payment brand headquartered in Canada, was invited to share his insights.
At the event, Spencer shared his inspiring story of how he achieved success in Canada as an ordinary international student with no money and no resources，and how he broke through the class step by step, breaking out of the limitations of his status and building a successful career in Canada.
In 2005, while still in high school, Spencer Xu came to Canada to establish his roots in a foreign country. Later, due to his own “rebellion”, he was cut off from cash flow by his father, but he was determined to make his own fortune. After graduating from university, he joined CIBC, one of Canada’s top five banks, with outstanding abilities. He then became a partner of a local wealth management company before the age of 30, earning his first bucket of gold in his life.
Targeting the “going global” opportunity for China’s mobile payments
With his innate business talent and keen business sense, Spencer Xu quickly discovered another blue ocean: mobile payment. At that time, China had become the most mature country in the global development of mobile payments, and Chinese consumers had become accustomed to using mobile payments, while Canada was still in the early stages of mobile payments at that time. Spencer decided to start his own business and launched the digital wallet Snaplii in Canada, dedicated to providing people with a more convenient, secure, and efficient way to pay.
Local Life + Mobile Payment + Consumer Credit
Snaplii bridges B-side and C-side to get Silicon Valley capital
According to Spencer’s observations, small and medium-sized businesses in Canada still rely on traditional methods, like physical coupons to attract customers and lack online marketing tools. With the pandemic, people’s habits have been forced to change, giving rise to O2O demand, and new payment methods have become possible in North America
Snaplii is committed to bridging the gap between the B-side and C-side. On the B-side, Snaplii can help merchants operate their own users, pushing various new products, promotions, and discounts to consumers, enabling merchants to sell more goods and receive more new members within Snaplii. On the C-end, users can not only enjoy convenient online shopping experiences and timely access to the latest merchant promotions but also receive 5%-20% cashback when they bind their card for consumption. Moreover, for C-end users, Snaplii integrates local life, local mobile payments, and credit functions. Users can use Snaplii for mobile payments and experience the “buy now, pay later” payment method.
Spencer Xu believes that Snaplii naturally meets the requirements of “decentralized finance”, connecting the web 3.0 virtual world and the real world. It enables every user to clearly understand the costs and profits of each transaction, making it a natural bridge between the upgrading process of the payment field and the real and virtual economies. For example, Snaplii can use its accumulated user data and relationships to help merchantsdistribute virtual tokens and form digital assets.
On the forum, Spencer emphasized the Snaplii’s advantages in the payment field and expressed that Snaplii is a product that incubated by borrowing from the strengths of Paypal and Alipay. Currently, Snaplii’s main business is in Canada, but Spencer Xu plans to expand the business to the US market, with the Bay Area as the first trial. When the company reaches a scale of 10 billion, it will bring more convenience and possibilities to the North American payment field.
Spencer Xu hopes to use the company’s accumulated funds, resources, and influence to do charitable work. This vision showcases his commitment to social responsibility and leaves people excited for Snaplii’s future development.
