Alipay partners with Ingenico to benefit Chinese tourists in Europe
Chinese payment platform Alipay has teamed up with Ingenico to provide technology for Ingenico’s in-store payment gateways across Europe. The deal will allow Chinese tourists visiting Europe to pay via their Alipay app at any store that uses Ingenico. In China, the Alipay app is used for a range of payment functions, including the purchase of movie tickets and booking taxis and hotels. The Financial Times estimates that 12.5 million Chinese tourists visited Europe in 2015, up 2.5 million from 2014. Since then, the number of Alipay's registered users has increased from 400 million to 450 million.

Alipay, the Chinese payment platform with 450 million users run by Ant Financial, is partnering with Ingenico to embed its technology into Ingenico’s in-store payment gateways across Europe.

The integration into the acquirer’s merchant portfolio will mean Chinese tourists visiting Europe will be able to pay via their Alipay App at any store that uses the Ingenico solution. The partnership seeks to allow Chinese tourists in Europe to use the Alipay App the same way as they are used to back home in China, where its payment capabilities have been enhanced to book everything from taxis and hotels, the purchase of movie tickets and many more functions directly from the App.

Also, as part of the new, extended partnership, Ingenico ePayments, the online and mobile commerce division of Ingenico Group, will now also provide full-service payment processing for Chinese merchants.

Douglas Feagin, Head of Alipay International and Senior Vice President of Ant Financial Services Group, said:

“We’re delighted to partner with Ingenico to offer a seamless payment experience to our customers across multiple touch points in Europe. We are convinced that the Alipay in-store payment via Ingenico will be much appreciated by the Chinese tourists in Europe”.

Analysis

This partnership is the latest example of Alipay’s European strategy. At the beginning of the year the company, which has an approximately 80% share of the Chinese mobile payments market, partnered with Wirecard with the same intention of increasing the number of locations that work with the Alipay app.

As Rita Liu, Head of Europe, Alipay, said at the time:

According to the World Tourism Organisation, the Chinese tourism market is worth $164 billion, so we have been working with partners all across Europe to provide merchants the opportunity to benefit from this market, by integrating Alipay.

According to the Financial Times, 12.5 million Chinese tourists visited Europe in 2015, an increase of 2.5 million from 2014.

Since that time, Alipay’s number of registered users increased from 400 million to 450 million as Sabrina Peng, president of Alipay International told an audience at Money 20/20 Copenhagen, introduced a “Local Services Platform” that uses geo-location to tell users what kind of shops and restaurants are in the area, how to get there and even what offers they can get, and partnered with Uber.