Sociotechnical enveloping: Productization of APIs and the transnational expansion of Alipay+

Platform-based big techs are making substantial inroads into cross-border payment (CBP) businesses, with far-reaching implications for medium to small enterprises, outsourced labor providers, migrant communities, international travelers, and financial institutions. This research examines the material foundations and social mechanisms that drive platformization in this domain. Drawing on application programming interface (API) analysis, industry interviews, and policy analyses revolving around the case of Alipay+, a mobile payment app that allows international consumers to use their home e-wallet to pay for their purchases abroad, this article highlights how the productization of APIs fuels what I call sociotechnical enveloping—a dynamic process through which dominant platforms rapidly align with or subsume emerging platforms in partnered countries. This process is rooted in the technological affordance of APIs, fulfilled through the API-mediated communications between stakeholders, and utilizes API as products and services to extend the platform logic into global financial infrastructures. By connecting platform evolution research in management information systems with social studies of fintech, this article advances a materially grounded and more nuanced account of platformization, offering deeper insight into the global consolidation of platform power.