AliPay launched a free service this week which allowed users to generate a profile based on their shopping history; users who signed up were automatically enrolled in their credit-scoring system called Sesame Credit unless they unchecked a box; this led to an outcry from users and a subsequent apology from the company; Bloomberg shares how this highlights a broader concern over transparency of user data in the country. Source
A new filing from Alibaba, who owns 33 percent of Ant Financial, reveals that Alipay claims to have 1.3 billion...
China’s fintech market is the biggest and most powerful in the world, especially when it comes to Alipay and WeChat...
Chinese tourists are able to use Alipay at more than 200,000 U.S. locations but the company does not have plans...
Big Banks vs. Silicon Valley Startups – Whose Customer Financial Data Is It Anyway? Mixed Bank Earnings; PeerIQ’s Modeling Archive...
Alibaba’s Alipay was granted an eMoney license in Luxembourg to allow the company to serve customers across Europe; the eMoney...
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
Ant Financial announced at Money 20/20 a partnership with payment processor First Data and hardware provider Verifone; new move will expand scope of their wallet product, AliPay, into North America and Europe for wealthy Chinese travelers; AliPay has 450 million active users, totaling nearly 70% of the third party payment market in China. Source
Chris Skinner’s new book called Digital Human will be launching this month; he sat down with Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays Bank UK, and Li Wang, Head of Alipay and Ant Financial for EMEA at his London book launch; in this blog post he shares video of the panel which took place; some of the highlights include Ashok sharing how Barclays has been able to adapt over the 300 years it has been in business and the certainty he has that they will be able to adapt going forward; Li shares how each employee at Ant generates RMB100 million or over £10 million in revenue per year, a stark contrast to efficiency at banks. Source
After a yearlong battle trying to convince US regulators about their acquisition of MoneyGram, Alibaba’s Ant Financial called off the deal; having a significant presence in the US is the one area that Alibaba head Jack Ma has yet to succeed; the $1.2bn deal would have helped to establish their Alipay product immediately; this looks to potentially ratchet up trade issues between the two countries as the new administration has taken an aggressive stance towards China. Source.