Alibaba’s Alipay to open up to Chinese service sector

Ant Financial, part of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, will open its Alipay platform to 40 million service providers in China over the next three years and help them digitise their offerings.

It’s a shift in positioning for Alipay, which has traditionally been focused on financial services.

Also of interest: Ant Financial Group invests in PayTech firm Klarna

The service sector in China is still in the nascent stages of digital transformation, observes Ant Financial CEO Simon Hu. “Amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, we have also seen how digital technology can be used to help service providers become more agile and respond effectively to the fast-changing market environment.”

“Building a one-stop digital lifestyle platform not only creates immense value for our users – it will also play an essential role in accelerating the digital transformation of the service industry and unlocking more growth opportunities,” he adds.

“Since the very beginning, Alipay’s success has always depended on the success of our partners, and that is why we believe the only way to best serve consumers is to open up our platform further, so service providers can better tap into consumer demands,” Hu concludes.

Further details here.

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