Alipay, the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) financial affiliate controlled by Jack Ma, is trying to gain a foothold with U.S. retailers by offering them tools to help sell to consumers in China.
Alipay’s “ePass” service will let Chinese shoppers buy products on U.S. retailers’ websites and then manage payments and door-to-door shipping logistics, the company said in a statement. Alipay will also help market U.S. products to consumers in China.
The service allows Alipay to integrate its payment system into U.S. retailers’ websites as an alternative to others like EBay Inc.’s PayPal. The merchants gain an entree into the world’s most-populous country, where Alipay processed almost half of the nation’s $887.7 billion in online payments last year, according to the market-research firm iResearch.
“You have a store and you can reach out globally, and technology has enabled you to do so,” Jingming Li, president and chief architect of Alipay U.S., said at a press briefing in New York. “We’re there to help them go into China because we know our customers there.”
Alipay will charge a range of fees on the transactions, depending on the types of services provided to the retailer, Li said. He declined to say which retailers have agreed to use the offering.
Alipay, which facilitates Web purchases from desktop PCs, tablets and smartphones, has more than 550 million registered users and processes about 8.5 million transactions a day, according to its website. The company handled more than three-quarters of the purchases made on Alibaba’s platforms last year, according to a regulatory filing.
Younger Consumers
The new offering targets young professionals in China, Li said. The 18- to 35-year-old age demographic accounts for more than 75 percent of online payment users in China, according to iResearch.
At a conference in Beijing today, the company also revealed payment options through its Alipay Wallet app that allow users to pay for hospital fees, rent cars in Beijing and Hangzhou, and check out in retail stores with Alipay bar codes.
Alibaba’s shares fell 1.2 percent to $84 at 9:50 a.m. in New York. The stock had gained 25 percent through yesterday since its Sept. 19 initial public offering.
The move comes as EBay is spinning off its PayPal division to give it more flexibility to forge alliances with retailers and financial firms as competition intensifies. While PayPal offers cross-border selling solutions, the company isn’t one of the top seven online payment processors in China, which account for 98 percent of the market.
10月15日【彭博】– 阿里巴巴集团金融关联公司、由马云控制的支付宝 正试图在美国零售商那里落脚，为它们提供工具把产品卖给在中国的消费 者。
支付宝在一份公告中表示，支付宝的”ePass”服务将让中国购物者在美 国零售商的网站上购物并管理支付和门到门货运物流。支付宝也将帮助向 在中国的消费者推销美国产品。
这一服务将让支付宝将其支付系统整合到美国零售商的网站，作为EBay Inc.旗下贝宝等支付方式之外的替代选择。商户将由此进入中国这一全球 人口最多的国家，据市场研究公司艾瑞咨询的数据显示，支付宝去年处理 了中国8,877亿美元网络支付金额中的近半。
支付宝美国的总裁兼首席架构师李景明在纽约的一次新闻发布会上表示， 你要有一家商店，就可以面向全球，科技已赋予你这样的能力；支付宝将 帮助商家进入中国市场，因为支付宝了解其在中国的客户。
李景明表示，支付宝将在相关交易上收取一系列费用，具体取决于为零售 商提供的服务类型。他拒绝透露哪些零售商已同意使用这项服务。
据其网站显示，支付宝目前有5.5亿名注册用户，每天处理大约850万笔交 易。据提交给监管机构的一份申报文件显示，支付宝去年处理了阿里巴巴 平台超过四分之三的交易。
年轻客户
李景明表示，新的服务面向在中国的年轻专业人士。据艾瑞咨询的数据显 示，18-35岁的用户在中国网络支付群体中超过75%。
此举正值EBay在竞争加剧的情况下分拆旗下贝宝业务为其提供更多弹性与 零售商和金融企业结盟之际。虽然贝宝提供跨境销售解决方案，但该公司 不在中国七大网络支付处理机构之列，它们的市场占有率为98%。