Alipay attacks Apple in North America expansion
Alipay is teaming up with First Data in North America as it looks to take a bite out of Apple’s market share.
As Banking Technology previously reported, Alipay has been gaining plenty of traction around the globe – with HelloPay Group in Asia merging with Ant Financial (which runs Alipay); and inking deals with European banks to drive its growth plans. Alipay currently has more than 450 million global users and is the world’s largest third-party payment platform.
In this latest deal, North American businesses will be able to accept Alipay’s mobile payment service. First Data will implement Alipay at the point-of-sale for its four million US business clients. The rollout will begin with First Data’s clients that use the Clover suite of solutions.
Souheil Badran, president, Alipay North America, says: “Our goal is to extend reliable payment services to the over four million Chinese consumers that visit North America every year.”
It will have a battle, as last year Apple CEO Tim Cook said that according to retailers, Apple Pay now accounts for 75% of all contactless payments made in the US.
As part of the agreement with First Data, Alipay transactions will be routed through Acculynk, First Data’s recently-acquired technology company that provides debit routing solutions. During the Alipay transaction, Acculynk will tokenise the Alipay QR code for settlement.
This latest collaboration follows on from 2016, when First Data and Alipay piloted the implementation of the Alipay mobile payment solution in “select high-end and specialty retail locations” in California and New York.
