What's New in Payments

Alibaba takes 33% stake in Alipay operator Ant Financial

Alibaba agrees to 33% stake in Ant Financial — Alibaba — “An equity stake in Ant Financial will bring key strategic benefits to Alibaba, including advancing its New Retail strategy with mobile payments, increasing user acquisition and retention through collaboration with the Alipay digital wallet (“Alipay Wallet”), and enhancing the execution of the international expansion… Upon closing, the companies will terminate the current profit-sharing arrangement under which Ant Financial pays royalty and technology service fees in an amount equal to 37.5% of its pre-tax profits to Alibaba.”


Alipay uses face verification to unlock delivery boxes

Alibaba testing face recognition technology — AsiaOne — “An army of specially equipped kiosks have been installed across five locations at Shanghai’s financial district of Lujiazui, with cameras scanning people’s faces to verify their identities… Users need to subscribe to a service embedded in the Alipay digital wallet, which gives the app the green light to capture their personal information to confirm their identity”.


What's New in Payments

Alipay to expand to Europe this summer

Alipay's Sabrina Peng on stage at Money20/20

Chinese mobile payments platform Alipay, which has 450 million active users, is to be made available in Europe this summer, enabling Chinese shoppers to make payments in stores, receive offers and view nearby shops and restaurants that accept the mobile payments service. More