Visitors to China can now link their international credit cards, including cards issued by Visa, Mastercard, JCB and Discover, to an Alipay or WeChat Pay digital wallet and use them to make payments for goods and services at merchants across the country... More
The digital yuan has been used to make 360m transactions worth a total of more than 100bn yuan (US$14bn) since China began piloting the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in December 2019, up from total cumulative transaction values worth 87.6bn yuan (US$12bn) at the end of 2021, according to the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)... More
Norway, Finland and New Zealand are the three countries closest to becoming cashless societies, followed by Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, the UK, Singapore and the Netherlands, according to research published by Merchant Machine... More
Nearly one in five Chinese consumers have downloaded the country’s official digital yuan wallet app (19%), with the majority of them mainly using the central bank digital currency (CBDC) for ecommerce purchases (72%) and payments for public services such as transportation (67%), a survey by US research firm Morning Consult has found... More
PayPal, followed by Alipay, are the top two digital wallet providers, with WeChat Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively, according to a Juniper Research Competitor Leaderboard report... More
China has issued an update to the pilot version of its digital yuan wallet app for Apple users that is “adapted to the iOS 15.4 system changes” released this week, and has uncovered an attempt to use the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in a fraud and money laundering case, according to local media reports... More
Overseas athletes and spectators visiting the Beijing Winter Olympics will be among the first foreign nationals to be able to trial China’s digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) at event venues, nearby merchants and inside the Olympic Village... More
The city of Moscow will complete the modernisation of its integrated contactless ticketing system across all transit networks by the end of 2021, its deputy mayor for transport Maksim Liksutov has announced... More
Android NFC phone users travelling on the Moscow Metro system in the Russian capital can now pay for their tickets directly from Google Pay by tapping a turnstile equipped with a contactless fare terminal — without having to first unlock their smartphone... More
Kakao Pay and AlipayHK to become available at PayPay merchants from April 27, 2020 — PayPay — “Users of code payment services Kakao Pay and AlipayHK, in addition to Alipay, will be able to complete payments using QR codes provided by PayPay merchants anywhere in Japan as of the 27th of April.”
UPDATED J-Coin Pay, a digital currency-based payments service that will support both P2P payments and enable consumers to make QR mobile payments in stores, will go live in Japan on 1 March, developer Mizuho Financial Group has announced... More
Tourism Australia, Alipay partner on new geotargeted Sydney City mobile app — CMO — “Chinese tourists will be able to access recommendations on what to see, where to shop and how to get around, all within an app they are familiar with and while being offered their preferred payment method… The Sydney City Card is built into the Alipay app, so no opt-in is required.”
Alipay granted Luxembourg license to serve European market — Luxembourg for Finance — “Already present with a licensed entity in London, Alipay’s new PSD2 license in Luxembourg will allow the group to leverage the EU passport to serve its customers across Europe in the future and connect Chinese users with merchants in EU countries.”
China’s first facial recognition payment-based shopping street opens in Wenzhou — ECNS — “A historical shopping street in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, has become the first in China to extensively apply facial recognition in making payments… Mao Xinqin, director of the street’s administration, said facial recognition payments can improve efficiency during the peak season for tourism and shopping. Yang Peng, vice president of Ant Financial, said Alipay has upgraded the payment system using a 3D structured light camera and can ensure accuracy of 99.99%.”
Alipay Box to utilize facial recognition tech for payments — Shine — “Alibaba’s financial and payment affiliate Ant Financial has released smart payment hardware called Alipay Box, integrating barcode scanning and facial recognition features… The plug-and-play device, which is smaller than a traditional self-service point of sale (POS) machine, does not require an overhaul of the merchants’ existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.”
Alipay has shown off a QR code-based payment system designed for public transit that can process transactions even when both the commuter’s device and the terminal are offline... More
Apple has issued an apology to Chinese customers who were victims of a phishing scam that saw some Alipay and WeChat Pay customers lose funds stored in their mobile wallets... More
Alipay has warned customers that have linked their accounts to their Apple ID to lower their transaction limits, Reuters reports, due to hackers who “have taken an unknown amount of money from accounts using stolen Apple Inc IDs.”... More
CIMB is first in Malaysia to bring QR acceptance from six mobile wallets on one payment terminal — CIMB Bank — “The six mobile wallet partners to be accepted on CIMB terminal are Alipay, Touch & Go Digital, Boost, KiplePay, Mcash, and Vcash. These six mobile wallets have a combined estimated customer base of about 4.5 million in Malaysia and 520 million registered mainland Chinese users.”
Alipay launches in-app guide for Germany’s Oktoberfest — Alizila — “Alipay said Friday it launched an in-app travel guide in Chinese for visitors to Munich’s Oktoberfest celebration and the city’s 211-year-old downtown Viktualienmarkt… The pilot service will offer ‘a wealth of information on the culture and history of both venues,’ including a map, a guide to individual stalls and products, information on German behavioural norms, like how to toast with a glass of beer and advice on when and where it’s OK to take photos. Users can also pay for what they buy through the Alipay app.”
