Looking for the latest and greatest in mobile payments? Try China. Companies from the world’s most populous country have made some bold moves recently to bring digital payments into the mainstream not just in China, but around the globe, and innovators in the US and Europe should be paying close attention. Alipay E-payment company Alipay, a subsidiary of digital retailer Alibaba – for a comparable arrangement, imagine Amazon owning PayPal — is bringing its payments platform to the United States. Why? Because Chinese shoppers are coming to the US. Alipay launched in 2004 and has become a trusted brand in China with over 700 million users — a touch more than PayPal’s 137 million. Businesses in the San Francisco Bay area, which receives a large number of Chinese visitors, are looking at Alipay as a way of capturing sales. Herb seller iHerb, based in southern California, saw a 244% lift in sales over the previous six months after it began accepting payments via Alipay. WeChat Mobile messaging app WeChat has 270 million users, 75% of whom are in mainland China. WeChat has been making moves into the payments space, recently partnering with smartphone maker Xiaomi to sell 150,000 WeChat-branded phones [...]
↧