Who says it's not safe to use a mobile phone while filling up an automobile with gasoline?
Alibaba's online payment provider Alipay has reached a deal with multiple oil companies in China to provide Alipay code-scanning payment service in 30,000 gas and petrol stations across the country.
Car owners can choose to recharge their fuel cards online or use Alipay's code-scanning payment after filling their tanks.
According to Alipay, the company currently has payment services with 1,400 gas stations for mobile payments. Alipay predicted that the number will rapidly increase to 30,000 within 2016, with an average increase of 159 gas stations on a daily basis. So far, Alipay has formed partnerships with China National Petroleum Corporation, Sinopec, Shell, BP, and Total.
Alipay started cooperating with companies like CNPC in providing payment services at gas stations from 2015. In March 2016, Alipay's parent company Ant Financial reached a deal with CNPC and the two parties planned to further promote the usage of Alipay at gas stations.