While Alibaba’s Sesame Credit has increased access to loans in China the government recently told them to stop a national rollout of the program; John Gapper from the FT writes that there are three main issues behind social credit scores in China; technology companies have a more liberal attitude than banks when it comes to data; social credit scores seem to promote spending and more credit where as a traditional FICO score rewards a user for self control; the scores are proprietary to the companies who created them like Alibaba did with Sesame Credit. Source.
The proposed relationship would allow Chinese consumers traveling to the US to use their Alipay Mobile Wallet; Pablo Simone, head of product and strategy for Chase Merchant Services stated, “We are always looking for ways to deliver more value to our merchants and bring them closer to their customers. A relationship with Alipay would create opportunities that enable Chinese tourists to transact in a way they are familiar with.”; it is estimated that four million Chinese consumers will visit North America this year. Source
Alipay and Marqeta partner on real time payment processing for Chinese travelers visiting North America; Marqeta’s platform will facilitate payment processing at retail locations across the continent; Jason Gardner, CEO of Marqeta tells Crowdfund Insider, “The Marqeta platform will ensure a seamless user and merchant experience across the U.S. that Alipay’s customers need when traveling and shopping abroad.” Source.
Writing an opinion piece in the FT Executive Chairman of Alipay Eric Jing calls for increased cooperation amongst companies even...
Alibaba’s Alipay was granted an eMoney license in Luxembourg to allow the company to serve customers across Europe; the eMoney...
A new filing from Alibaba, who owns 33 percent of Ant Financial, reveals that Alipay claims to have 1.3 billion...
Chinese tourists are able to use Alipay at more than 200,000 U.S. locations but the company does not have plans...
Alipay has partnered with Openpay in Mexico to further their expansion into the Americas; users of Alipay will now be able to use the service to make purchases at businesses that are affiliated with Openpay; Souheil Badran, President of Alipay Americas stated, “An increasing number of Chinese consumers are shopping for products in Mexico that they can’t find at home, and they want to be able to purchase those items with the payment method they use most often. Our partnership with Openpay not only connects Mexican merchants with Chinese consumers seeking their products and services, but also opens new revenue channels for merchants in Mexico. We are thrilled to be partnering with Openpay as we continue to expand the reach of Alipay throughout the Americas.” Source
The new head of Ant Financial's international operations, Douglas Feagin, helped ink a deal with 930,000 merchants across Europe to help Chinese travelers use Alipay; Doug Feagin explained to the Financial Times why the deal was done: "120 million Chinese travelers went abroad in 2015 and that's growing at 18% a year. The vast majority of whom use Alipay."; Alipay has now expanded into India, Europe and Southeast Asia; it is still looking to go public in the near future. Source
Ant Financial has rolled out the world's first commercial application of a payment system that identifies payers using facial recognition technology; starting from September 1, a KFC restaurant in Hangzhou allows customers to authenticate their payments by having their faces scanned; the whole process, which takes about ten seconds, does not require users to take out their cell phones; the function is powered by Face ++ technology developed by Beijing startup Megvii. Source