Alibaba Group‘s payment service, Alipay, signed a deal with Ingenico Group, granting it access to many of Europe’s major retailers. In return, these will be able to accept Alipay as a payment service.
Chinese tourists
If Alibaba wants Chinese tourists to use Alipay abroad, it needs to partner with major chains willing to accept the payment service. It now moves one step closer to its goal thanks to the Ingenico deal, as the company is a technological partner for many of Europe’s largest retailers.
Last year, 120 million Chinese tourists spent 875 dollars (775) per capita on their trips abroad. Alipay itself also has more than 450 million users, considerably more than similar services by Samsung, Apple and Google combined. 80 % of China’s mobile payments are done using Alipay.
Alipay users can already use their service with Uber, Macy’s, AirBnB and other companies, but there are no plans to expand the service to consumers outside of China.
