Alipay sets out plan for open financial services platform

Simon Hu CEO of Alipay parent company Ant Financial
MAJOR MILESTONE: Alipay plans to evolve into an open financial services and digital lifestyle platform

Chinese mobile payments giant Alipay has announced a three-year plan to evolve its current offering into an open financial services and digital lifestyle platform — and has set a target of attracting 40m service providers by 2030.

“The plan marks a major milestone as Alipay continues to strengthen its positioning in China, evolving from a platform that provides inclusive financial services to an open, vibrant digital ecosystem that offers users a gateway into a comprehensive digital lifestyle, right in the palms of their hands,” Alipay says.

“As part of the opening up, Alipay will be updated so that service providers can tap into traffic within the app, while AI-driven incentive programs will encourage service providers to consistently improve the customer experience.

“Users will also be able to access personalised recommendations from newly added service sections. With these initiatives in place, service providers will be able to enhance their distribution efficiency in Alipay.”

“Under the three-year plan, Alipay will also work with 50,000 independent software vendors (ISVs) to help 40m service providers digitalize their operations, increase efficiency and reach more customers by 2030, up from more than one million currently on the platform,” Alipay adds.

“ISVs are companies that package Alipay’s technologies into solutions to meet the needs of specific industries and use cases, ranging from consumer retail, food and beverage, hotels and accommodations, transportation to medical services.”

“Building a one-stop digital lifestyle platform not only creates immense value for our users — it will also play an essential role in accelerating the digital transformation of the service industry and unlocking more growth opportunities,” says Simon Hu, CEO of Alipay’s parent Ant Financial.

“Since the very beginning, Alipay’s success has always depended on the success of our partners, and that is why we believe the only way to best serve consumers is to open up our platform further, so service providers can better tap into consumer demands.”

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