The leading Chinese online payments provider is seeking worldwide partners to establish a mobile service ecosphere with overseas airports, department stores and dining scenes as its nodes.
Chinese Internet payment service provider Alipay took steps in this direction as it announced plans to launch a new program named "Alipay+" in Singapore.
The first batch of organizations that joined this program included South Korea's KICC, Japan's Orix, and Singapore's Singeat.com, covering the markets of Asia, Europe, and North America.
Alipay will recruit partners from all over the world and open technologies and resources, covering payments, big data, and cloud computing, to them. By integrating technologies, services, and local operating strength, the Chinese company plans to establish a mobile service ecosphere with overseas airports, department stores and dining scenes as its centers to serve more Chinese outbound tourists.
Outbound Chinese tourists spend lots of time at airports, department stores and restaurants, so the establishment of an ecosphere centered on those three scenes is a key step to connect outbound tourists to the local services in those countries.
Peng Yijie, vice president of Alibaba-owned Ant Financial's international business unit, said that Alipay hopes to use technologies and data to help Chinese outbound tourists access local lifestyle services more effectively.
Alipay started expanding overseas usage for Chinese outbound tourists from the end of 2014. So far, the company has introduced nearly 70,000 overseas offline vendors in 70 countries and regions, including South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, and Germany.