That's fine with Communist Party policy-makers.
The Chinese consumer buy-in is so complete that many merchants today only grudgingly accept cash. "We are going to see digital finance do things we never thought it could do, and go into businesses everywhere that we never saw coming." "It's revolutionary, what they're doing," said Jeffrey Towson, a private equity investor and lecturer at Beijing University. Payment, of course, is processed via Alipay.Īnt Group, spun off from Alibaba in 2011, says about half its revenue is derived from such providers.īut its super-sized ambitions also include forays into personal finance that have put traditional Chinese banks on notice by offering easy access to a range of financial services including consumer credit, small-business loans and money-market funds. Smartphone users need only open Alipay to find the service they want and place an order. You can do it from home."īut direct point-of-sale payments are only part of the Alipay picture.Īnt Group has built an ecosystem around Alipay in which third-party vendors - for everything from meal deliveries to travel services or taking out a loan - are housed under its umbrella. "Now, we pay all our utility bills through Alipay, which directly deducts the amount online," he said. Tao said that in China's paper-money olden days, his family would have to hail a cab to get to a distant government office just to pay the household water and electricity bills - in cash.
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Along with the WeChat Wallet function of Alibaba's chief tech rival Tencent, it has helped propel China forward into what may represent the economy of the future.Īt restaurants, grocery stores and cafes, at subway turnstiles, train stations and airports, and when buying fruits and vegetables from a streetside peddler, purchases across China are routinely made by consumers old and young with a quick QR code scan.Įven the occasional beggar is on board, sprawled on a sidewalk next to a neatly laminated printout of a QR code. The raw numbers and growth potential of Ant Group have investors salivating over the world-record IPO.Īlipay boasts in excess of 700 million active users - half of China's population and more than double that of the United States. "It's indispensable for getting around in China." "I use Alipay to order a cab, to buy things, to shop on (Alibaba e-commerce platform) Taobao, to buy clothes, and air and train tickets," said Tao. Like hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers, the 22-year-old admits he simply cannot survive without Alipay, the crown jewel of the Alibaba empire.
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