The CEO of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA), Jack Ma, released teasers of its new technology on Sunday, by means of which users would be able to make online payments after scanning their faces on a Smartphone. This would take the online payment technology to an all-new high. The said technology is still under progress and would be called “Smile ToPay.” This announcement was made by Jack Ma while he was speaking at the CeBit tech trade fair in Hannover, Germany.
The company is collaborating with its affiliate, Ant Financial, for the purpose of development of this technology that would be used along-side Alipay online payment service and Alipay wallet.
Jack Ma then presented a demo by purchasing an old stamp from Hannover on Alibaba.com after scanning his face on his mobile using the front camera. He then said the stamp was already on its way to the Mayor of Hannover’s office.
According to a recent research by Juniper Research, online and mobile payment is expected to reach an annual transaction value of $4.7 trillion by 2019 which was $2.5 trillion last year. All the companies are vying hard to get their share in this boom. Last year, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) released Apple pay while SAMSUNG ELECTD LTD launched its Samsung Pay, last month only.
Newer verification techniques are being developed by service providers to make online payments even safer. These include eye scanning verification, unveiled at Mobile World Congress, last month, and also finger-print verification on Apple’s iPhones.
Alibaba is also working on new authentication methods like authenticating a purchase by speaking a trigger phase. Another method called “Kong Fu” involves scanning a tattoo or even a pet for purpose of verification.
Though the company has not announced any official date for the aforesaid launch, “Smile To Pay” will be initially launched in China only. It may later be expanded to other countries as well.
