Chinese Internet third-party payment service provider Alipay announced that they had reached cooperation with an additional ten overseas airports.
Those airports are Germany's Munich Airport, Singapore's Changi Airport, Japan's Narita International Airport, Japan's Kansai International Airport, South Korea's Incheon International Airport, New Zealand's Auckland Airport, Thailand's Suvarnabhumi Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, and Macau International Airport. Starting from October 2016, those ten overseas airports will accept payments via Alipay.
This is reportedly the largest-scale cooperation between a Chinese Internet company and the global aviation industry.
In addition, Alipay plans to promote "future airport" in the world and to deploy its payment, big data, and cloud computing capacities at more overseas airports. By then, consumers will be able to enjoy more services, including mobile online check-in, Wi-Fi connectivity, and indoor navigation, with Alipay.
According to Peng Yijie, vice president of the international business unit of Ant Financial, the cooperation with those ten overseas airports is the first step of their "global future airport plan" and they want to promote this model to more regions across the world. Peng revealed that the company had reached cooperation intentions with many large hub airports in Europe and America and Chinese tourists would soon be able to use Alipay at more airports. She hopes that in the future, Alipay could cover the 30 overseas airports which Chinese outbound tourists visit the most.
To enhance its overseas influence, Alipay has reportedly formulated a new round of overseas promotion plans, including placing large airport advertisements at the above ten airports.