Alpha Payments Cloud partners Alipay to expand business agenda in China

A subsidiary of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, Alipay is an internet payment solution in the country with 400 million active users. This figure makes up more than 50% and 80% of the market share in online payments and mobile payments, respectively.

Under the partnership, Alipay will be offered as a payment option through the AlphaHub Payments-as-a-Service platform. The platform features a transaction layer that enables third-party solutions such as Alipay to be used across ecommerce, m-commerce and point-of-sale (POS). Alipay and Alpha Payments Cloud’s partnership taps into the Chinese ecommerce market, as well as to the 117 million Chinese international travelers annually.

Chinese tourists spent about USD165 billion in 2014, the single biggest spenders of any nation. Based on figures from the Chinese Commerce Ministry, the country’s ecommerce transactions hit USD 2 trillion in 2014. On a monthly basis, more than 642 million users transacted online and more than 565 million used mobile payments, accounting for nearly half of the Chinese population.

Rónán Gallagher, Chief Product Officer at Alpha Payments Cloud, commented, “With China predicted to take 50% of the global ecommerce market by 2018, more and more merchants are looking East and partnering with Alipay is of strategic importance. By offering merchants simplified connectivity and access to Alipay they can open up their business to a significantly wider market.”