Face++ raises $25m for selfie payments

Face++, the Chinese facial recognition technology startup behind Alibaba’s selfie payments service, has secured an additional $25m in a series B funding round, taking the total raised to $47m... More


Alibaba signs up brands for QR-like dotless visual codes

Dotless Visual Codes

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has launched a platform for brands and product manufacturers that will enable them to place “dotless visual codes” on product packaging so that consumers can scan to check a product’s authenticity and get information, discounts and recommendations based on their preferences... More


What's New in Payments

Alibaba checks in simple hotel booking

Hotel customers with high credit scores will be able to book rooms on Alibaba’s online travel booking platform Alitrip without having to provide their credit card for room deposits and bypass check-out with payments automatically deducted from their Alipay accounts... More




Alibaba invests in visual QR codes

Visualead visual QR code technology will help take advantage of O2O opportunities in China

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has invested an undisclosed sum in Israeli start-up Visualead, developer of the “visual” QR code technology adopted by Chinese social media site RenRen in May last year... More







NFC World

Octopus and Alibaba add NFC security to ecommerce

Alipay's Liang Minjun, Octopus CEO Sunny Cheung and Taobao's Daphne Lee launch the Octopus Online Payment Service

Hong Kong prepaid card provider Octopus has partnered with Chinese online giant Alibaba’s Taobao ecommerce platform and Alipay mobile payments service to let customers make secure online purchases using a combination of contactless cards, QR codes and NFC phones. More


NFC World

The new issue of Mobile Wallet Outlook is now out

The January/February issue of the monthly trends bulletin from the NFC World team’s business intelligence service examines the impact on the mobile wallet market of the new Facebook Card, the arrival of NFC in the home and the latest mobile wallet business developments from around the world. More