Alipay, operated by Ant Financial Services Group has announced its expansion into the European market, with a particular focus on U.K., Germany and France. Alipay is the world’s leading third party payment & lifestyle platform, dedicated to using technology to provide inclusive financial services to individuals as well as small and micro businesses.
With this launch, Alipay simplifies payments for Chinese tourists utilising western businesses when travelling. In 2014, 117 million Chinese tourists travelled abroad spending $165 billion. This is forecast to reach 234 million tourists by 2020, offering a vast opportunity for European retailers to connect to a new consumer base.
Alipay is currently the largest payment and lifestyle solution provider in China, with 450 million active users, and more than 200 financial institution partners. The company owns more than 50 per cent of the market share in online payment and 80 per cent in mobile. Its mobile app is widely used for payments in online shops as well as at the point-of-sale in China, which with this expansion will now offer Chinese consumers the same service in Europe. It will launch a “Local Services Platform” within the app in May which will customise the Alipay app based on the user’s geolocation. Users will be able to see a detailed description and reviews of the shops and restaurants around them, plot a route via a bilingual interactive map, and receive customised location based offers and coupons.
Alipay is aiming to leverage this platform to collaborate with European payment companies and content service providers to provide localised services to bring even more Chinese shoppers to the merchant‘s stores as well as provide Alipay customers more value.
“Our customers have very high trust in our brand as Alipay is an essential part of their daily life,” said Sabrina Peng, President of Alipay International. “With this expansion user can now access Alipay in Europe, allowing them to enjoy a seamless experience when travelling. Whether it’s e-commerce or brick-and-mortar shops, we are expanding our presence internationally to enable our customers to access Alipay wherever they are. From a merchant perspective, the opportunity is huge as Chinese consumers feel the most comfortable using Alipay to complete purchases. We’ve been working with partners across Europe such as Wirecard and Prestashop to help merchants – small and large, capitalise on the opportunity to sell to the Chinese market. Currently, we are focused on the U.K., France and German markets as these are the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists to shop – both online and offline.” She said.
In November, Alipay announced a partnership with Wirecard which allows Chinese users to pay with their smartphone and Alipay app at authorised POS retailers in Europe by using integrated barcode payment functionality from Wirecard, without the hassle of incurring currency exchange fees. Wirecard is a full service provider for merchants, offering POS infrastructure, payment processing and acquiring services.
Share