Retail in Asia

In Trends

Alipay to launch in Europe as Alibaba steps up payments game

Alipay, the payment app run by Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Financial, is launching in Europe to allow Chinese tourists to pay for things abroad, in its biggest push out of Asia yet.

The app will recognize where the Chinese Alipay user is in Europe and send notifications about where to eat, shopping offers and places to see. There are also user reviews on the app. When a user attempts to pay, a barcode will be shown on a person’s device which the merchant can scan.

Alipay is one of China’s biggest payment services and competes with Tencent’s WeChat Payment. Alipay is deeply ingrained in the lives of Chinese consumers and is used to pay for items in-store and online for goods and services ranging from taxis to restaurants and clothing.

Alibaba is hoping that its active Alipay users, which now total 450 million, according to the company, will continue to use the app abroad allowing the company to take advantage of the increasing number of Chinese tourists who are spending more.

(Source: CNBC)