Alipay

Introduction

Alipay is a Chinese company founded by Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma in 2010.  Alipay covers 870 million users around the world and is now the 2nd largest payment services organization in the world. In 2013, Alipay overtook PayPal, the world’s largest payment platform, and as of 2020, Alipay operates with more than 65 financial institutions to provide their services on Chinese markets. Their services are not only available in Asia, but they also operate in Oceania, North America, and Europe. Alipay provides users with a Wallet App providing services such as QR code payment, credit card bill payment, bank account management, P2P transfer, and prepaid mobile phone top-up. On top of financial services, Alipay app users can also have access to bus and train tickets, food orders, vehicle for hire, insurance selections, and a digital identification document storage.

Operations

Through the Alipay app, the Ant group offers digital payment services to support merchants to stay engaged with their customers and accelerates the digital transformation of merchants’ offline businesses. Moreover, the Ant group offers financial services like wealth management, microfinancing, and insurance. Alipay is available on Taobao and Tmall, two of the biggest Chinese online shopping platforms. On top of that, Alipay offers its services to more than 460 thousand online and local Chinese businesses. Today, 300 international merchants use Alipay to sell directly to Chinese consumers. Alipay already holds a dominant position in the Chinese market, accounting for 54.1% of the country’s mobile payment transactions. In 2020 digital financial services contributed to 50% of the Ant Group’s overall revenue. 

Strategy

Alibaba’s main goal for the Ant Group and its technology products is to expand and move aggressively to foreign markets. Alipay targets china’s international tourists to maximize their chance of adoption and promotes partnership with foreign payment services providers and businesses to implement these new markets. Alipay is now deployed in various parts of the globe and  mainly used by Chinese tourists that are used to tap and go payment instead of shopping with cash.

Alipay in Africa

In 2017, the Ant Group started its first expansion in Africa by offering access to the Alipay app to Chinese tourists in South Africa. Alibaba is actively looking to expand in countries where there is a Chinese footprint, and South Africa was one of the first to deal with Alipay. This collaboration shows a trend of the increasing presence of Chinese companies and the development of non-cash payment services in Africa.

KiwiGo X Alipay

KiwiGo number one priority is to breach the gap between frontier markets and the rest of the western world by bringing technologies and services that improve lives and create new opportunities. Very much like Alipay, KiwiGo is a powerful engine that will bring African access to digital payment and new alternatives. KiwiGo’s superapp will give users a wide array of new services from ride-hailing to delivery, and partners like Alipay widely used in China and the rest of the world are essential for KiwiGo’s implementation. Alipay wants to bring to foreign countries a means of exchange that will benefit the Chinese population as well as the local economy. KiwiGo’s vision is to contribute to the local economies and bring new financial alternatives to consumers. Therefore, partnerships with giants like Alibaba will give access to new markets and boost new opportunities.