Tag Archives: Alipay
Finnish Department Store Introduces Alipay To Retail Customers
Finland’s department store Stockmann signed an agreement with ePassi, a mobile payment company in Finland, to formally introduce Alipay as a payment method in the department store.
Anna Salmi, chief customer officer of Stockmann Group, said that Alipay is not only a payment method, but also represents a method to attract Chinese tourists. This service will first available at Stockmann’s flagship store in the center of Helsinki and gradually expanded to all Stockmann department stores across Finland. They may also expand it into their department stores in Baltic countries.
Stockmann has eight large department stores in Finland, Estonia, and Latvia. Chinese tourists have become the second largest foreign consumer group for Stockmann, following Russian tourists. The opening of Alipay allows their important customers to shop in a familiar way, which is significant to them, said Salmi.
Risto Virkkala, president of ePassi, said that Stockmann is a top retailing group in Finland and its acceptance of Alipay has a milestone meaning for the expansion of Alipay in Finland and in Europe. It also has a strong promotional effect for the cooperation between ePassi and Alipay.
With 600,000 customers, ePassi is one of the largest mobile payment companies in Finland. It has been operating in this field for ten years and it claims to have had significant business and customer growth after cooperating with Alipay.
Alipay Brings Chinese Money Services To Malaysian JV
CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Malaysia’s second largest bank by asset scale, said that its subsidiary Touch n Go, in which the bank holds a 52.22% stake, has reached an investment agreement with Alipay to set up a joint venture entity in Malaysia.
According to CIMB, Touch n Go will hold a majority stake in the joint venture, while Alipay will hold a minority stake. The joint venture will launch a new payment and related financial services mobile platform in Malaysia.
CIMB also said that it is expected that the establishment of this new joint venture will not have major influence on CIMB’s profit or net asset value in 2017. If calculating by assets, CIMB is the fifth largest bank in Southeast Asia.
Chinese Internet finance enterprises like Ant Financial and WeChat payment are actively expanding overseas recently. Earlier this month, a representative from WeChat payment overseas business revealed that they already applied for a payment license in Malaysia. If approved, users in Malaysia would be able to bind their local bank accounts with WeChat payment to complete payments for products and services in Malaysian currency.
U.S. Payments Start-up Teams With Alipay, WeChat To Reach Chinese Consumers
Silicon Valley start-up company Stripe has reached deals with Chinese digital payment service providers Alipay and WeChat payment to enable global vendors to accept payments from Chinese consumers via its platform.
Stripe said that starting from July 10, 2017, the cooperation allows online vendors to accept payments via Alipay and WeChat payment by using Stripe.
In China, payments with credits cards only account for a small part of online payments. Stripe hopes to explore China’s massive consumer market by integrating payment services, which will increase its revenue for providers. At present, Alipay has over 520 million users, while WeChat payment has over 600 million users.
John Collison, president and co-founder of Stripe, said during an interview that this will help unlock a large consumer group for Internet companies not based in China. Meanwhile, Chinese consumers will gain more shopping options.
Founded in 2010, Stripe helps vendors from 25 countries to accept online payments with its technologies. They will charge vendors for each transaction completed via its platform.
Alipay Hong Kong Taxi Payments Could Be Its Killer App
It’s one country, two systems for Alipay as it focuses on retail payments in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, with a separate mobile app from the one it uses on the mainland.
Alipay announced the launch of its Hong Kong version e-wallet Alipay HK, which is the first time for this Internet payment service provider to launch an overseas version app.
Alipay started providing services in Hong Kong in 2007. In August 2016, they gained a third-party payment license issued by Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Alipay Hong Kong company is one of the first batch of payment license owners. Now Alipay HK has finally been launched after a few months of preparation.
With the launch of Alipay HK, Hong Kong users will be able to use Alipay services by binding their credit cards of Hong Kong local banks or balance recharges, and they can use Hong Kong dollars to complete payment directly. Alipay HK provides three major services, including code-scanning payment, vendor offers, and stamp collection.
Alipay HK will gradually launch more functions like mobile phone fee recharges; payment for water, electricity, and gas bills; online transfers; taxi payment; and insurance payments.
The taxi payments are of special significance. Currently the Octopus payment card in Hong Kong is ubiquitous and can be used for both public transportation and retail payments. But Octopus cannot be used for paying of taxi trips. Octopus had a small, brief test of taxi payments a few years ago, but it failed to launch the service in Hong Kong. If Alipay could overcome the taxi payment obstacle, it could grab a new, underserved market.
For global expansion, Alipay’s parent company Ant Financial has realized e-wallet cooperation with partners in India, Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, and Indonesia. With the launch of Alipay HK, Ant Financial’s services now reach six overseas countries and regions.
Alipay Reaches U.S. Payments Deal
Ant Financial’s Alipay service has inked a deal with U.S. payment processing services provider First Data Corp to allow Alipay users to purchase from more than four million American vendors.
Souheil Badran, Alipay’s North America president, said this will make Alipay ubiquitous in the U.S. and enable it to enter more countries. Instead of operating independently in the U.S., they prefer to cooperate with ecosystems with certain scale.
In China, Alipay and WeChat payment hold combined market share of over 90% in the Chinese mobile payment market. At present, Alipay hopes to provide a wider range of services to Chinese tourists who go overseas. Alipay’s mobile wallet already supports credit cards of American Express, Visa, and MasterCard. So far, over 100,000 retailers in 70 international markets accept payments via Alipay.
By cooperating with First Data, Alipay will be able to lift its penetration level in the U.S. to the same as Apple Pay. Apple’s chief executive officer Tim Cook recently revealed on a conference call that Apple’s mobile payment service is now available at 4.5 million places in the U.S.
Hainan Airlines To Provide Inflight Payment Services With Alipay
Alipay, Shareco, and Hainan Airlines jointly announced that Hainan Airlines will formally launch inflight mobile payment services on its first batch of 15 planes which will allow travelers to pay for goods and class upgrades.
By the end of 2017, the services will be deployed to cover 129 planes.
When taking Hainan Airlines’ Internet-enabled airliners, passengers can access Wi-Fi provided by Shareco, the online platform operating company under Hainan Airlines, to browse Shareco’s aerial shopping mall, purchase discounted products, and complete payments with Alipay.
According to Pan Yunbin, chief executive officer of Shareco, the aerial mobile payment will be rolled-out along with the modification of Internet-enabled airliners. By the end of 2017, Internet airliner modifications are expected to reach 129 planes, covering Hainan Airlines, Capital Airlines, and Yangtze River Airlines. Those planes will transport about 600,000 passengers every week.
Alipay Available At Nearly 4,000 Vendors In Japan
Chinese travelers to Japan can rely on more payment options as Alipay says it is now supported by nearly 4,000 retail vendors in Japan.
Those Japanese vendors include international airports like Narita International Airport and Kansai International Airport; home appliance stores like Bic Camera, Yamada Denki, Edion, and Joshin; department stores like Takashimaya, Daimaru, Tokyu, Odakyu, Tobu, and Kintetsu; duty free shops like Don Quijote, Takeya, and Laox; apparel brands like Uniqlo, United Arrows, and Beams; convenience stores like 7-11, Lawson, and Family Mart; and cosmetic outlets stores like Kirindo, Kyorindo, and Welcia.
At the end of September 2015, China’s Ant Financial Group and Japan’s Recruit Lifestyle jointly announced Alipay’s formal entry into the Japanese market and access to the smart POS network of Recruit’s 176,000 vendors.
Alipay’s major target customers in Japan are Chinese tourists. Meanwhile it serves important vendors where Chinese tourists purchase the most. However, this Chinese third-party payment service provider has not yet implemented services targeting Japanese consumers.
Chen Qingyang, head of Japan market of Ant Financial’s overseas business unit, said that different countries have different regulatory styles, business habits, and market volumes. They will make strategies in accordance to the features of specific countries and may introduce Alipay to Japanese based on further research.
Alipay Becomes Exclusive Mobile Payment Channel In Mainland China MUJI Stores
MUJI and Alipay announced that MUJI’s nearly 200 stores in mainland China will support payments via Alipay.
At the same time, the two parties will connect their membership systems. Once consumers complete payments with Alipay in MUJI stores, they can gain MUJI’s membership card and realize automatic points accumulation.
China is becoming one of the most important overseas markets for MUJI. The Japanese company’s financial report for 2015 showed that its operating revenue of its East Asia business unit, which covered South Korea, Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, was about CNY4.3 billion, accounting for 27% of its total operating revenue; and the Chinese mainland contributed about CNY2.6 billion.
Prior to this, MUJI only accepted payments with cash, bank cards, and stored-value cards. With the cooperation with Alipay, MUJI’s nearly 200 stores in mainland China will provide consumers with a mobile payment option to enable fast and convenient shopping experiences.
Alipay said that in the future they will help MUJI implement in-depth membership operation and accurate marketing to improve consumer loyalty and achieve mutual benefits.
Alipay Provides Payment Services At Ten More Overseas Airports
Chinese Internet third-party payment service provider Alipay announced that they had reached cooperation with an additional ten overseas airports.
Those airports are Germany’s Munich Airport, Singapore’s Changi Airport, Japan’s Narita International Airport, Japan’s Kansai International Airport, South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, New Zealand’s Auckland Airport, Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, and Macau International Airport. Starting from October 2016, those ten overseas airports will accept payments via Alipay.
This is reportedly the largest-scale cooperation between a Chinese Internet company and the global aviation industry.
In addition, Alipay plans to promote “future airport” in the world and to deploy its payment, big data, and cloud computing capacities at more overseas airports. By then, consumers will be able to enjoy more services, including mobile online check-in, Wi-Fi connectivity, and indoor navigation, with Alipay.
According to Peng Yijie, vice president of the international business unit of Ant Financial, the cooperation with those ten overseas airports is the first step of their “global future airport plan” and they want to promote this model to more regions across the world. Peng revealed that the company had reached cooperation intentions with many large hub airports in Europe and America and Chinese tourists would soon be able to use Alipay at more airports. She hopes that in the future, Alipay could cover the 30 overseas airports which Chinese outbound tourists visit the most.
To enhance its overseas influence, Alipay has reportedly formulated a new round of overseas promotion plans, including placing large airport advertisements at the above ten airports.
China's Alipay Expects To Enter Europe This Year
Alibaba’s deal with France’s Ingenico, a global leader in seamless payments, heralds the entry of the Chinese company’s Internet payment service to Europe by the end of 2016.
Ingenico said that with this partnership, Alibaba’s Alipay service will be imbedded into Ingenico’s in-store payment gateway, which will allow acquirers across Europe to easily integrate and offer Alipay acceptance with their merchants. With Alipay integrated into the acquirer’s merchant portfolio, Chinese tourists visiting Europe will be able to conveniently pay via their mobile Alipay app at any store that uses the Ingenico solution.
In 2013, Alipay established its international business unit to accelerate globalization. Meanwhile, globalization has become one of the three major strategic development directions of Ant Financial, the parent company of Alipay.
So far, Alipay has been providing cross-border payment services to 2,000 overseas vendors in more than 40 countries and regions, supporting settlements with 14 different currencies. Its e-commerce website partners include iHerb, My Bag, and Rakuten; and it has also reached deals with transportation and tourism service providers such as Singapore Airlines.
In addition, Alipay provides online tax refund services for eight countries, including France, UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Netherlands, and South Korea. In the O2O sector, over 10,000 offline stores in Hong Kong and South Korea accept Alipay payments.
The cooperating agreement between Alibaba and Ingenico will mainly cover France, UK, Italy, Spain, and Germany; and Alipay still needs to reach agreement with related banks to realize the payment service. The two companies predicted that Alipay will achieve full operating capacities in Europe by the end of 2016. Financial details of the Ingencio and Alibaba deal were not released.