Alipay Proposes Alipay Barcode Pay
- China-based Alipay, PayPal’s rival, has just developed an m-payment solution relying on a barcode.
- This solution identifies the Alipay payment account through the barcode: to pay for his purchases, the customer must identify himself on Alipay’s mobile app, scan his barcode at the point of sale and validate his transaction using his mobile phone.
- PayPal is currently developing two contactless technologies: Bump and NFC. Alibaba-owned Alipay (Alibaba is a Chinese online bidding website similar to eBay) leaves NFC aside and bases its solution on barcodes (via webcam).
- The agreement between Alibaba and PayPal, which should have enabled the US player to set foot in Asia, ended after one year. PayPal has just announced it would be the exclusive PSP for three Chinese e-commerce websites (dhgate, LightInTheBox and TradeTang).
- PayPal did not obtain any license to perform domestic operations in China but can process online cross-border payment operations.