Continuing its rapid global expansion drive, Alipay has now partnered with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to deliver payment solutions to Australian and Chinese consumers and retailers in the country. The same happened after the two announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Founded in 2004 and having evolved into an affiliate of Alibaba three years ago, Alipay is operated by Alibaba’s financial services arm Ant Financial. Alipay has been partnering with organizations around the world, like Uber to tap into Chinese consumers during oversees travel and tourism.
Alipay has more than 450 million daily users globally that make 380 million payments every day through their mobile phones. The MoU will make it easier for Australians to shop through Alibaba Group’s ecommerce websites via CBA’s existing digital payments infrastructure.
The partnership with CBA means Alipay will be able to expand its reach beyond China. For CBA, the deal will help it target Chinese students and tourists, which isn’t a small number — about 19,000 tourists visit Australia every week and spend almost AU$8,000 person.
The simple payment solution will allow Chinese tourists and students to use Alipay for in-store payments at Australian retailers, leveraging CBA’s payments system, including its point of sale tablet Albert.
Douglas Feagin, senior vice president of Ant Financial Services Group and head of Alipay International, said:
Australia is a popular destination for Chinese travelers and Chinese students studying overseas. We want Alipay users to enjoy the kind of convenience they are used to at home. We are working with regional and global partners like CBA to make this happen.
In the past, Australian consumers were using AliExpress, a platform for Chinese merchants that arranges foreign exchange in order to sell to global consumers. CBA is the first Australian bank to secure a deal with Alipay, which means the payments service will be switched on in the country for the first time.
Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, group executive of institutional banking and markets at CBA, said the bank is “thrilled” to be the first Australian bank to collaborate with Alipay.
We are constantly working on payment solutions that offer flexibility and choice for our customers so the prospect of bringing them closer to a globally leading mobile payments provider, and its 450 million active users, is truly exciting,” she said.
Australia is a major market for Alibaba, ranking in as the fifth-biggest selling country and Singles Day promotions deemed to be the biggest online shopping event in the world. Alibaba also announced that it would be opening its first local office in Melbourne by the end of this year.
