Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), the largest of the ecommerce players in China operates Alipay, the online payment system with over 350 million Chinese users.
In China, Alipay is used in making online payment, in-stores as well as on mobiles. It is said that without credit or debit cards or cash, one can survive in China with Alipay.
Most store-chains already accept payment via NFC technology thereby transitioning the middle class of China to become online payment native.
Now, this massive segment of population, which according to market research is all set to double in the next seven years is where Alipay wants US retailers to sell to.
In his latest US visit, the founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) Jack Ma, was articulate about his company’s growth opportunities in the US.
Jingming Li, president of Ant Financial Americas which is the parent company of Alipay in the US, sat down with Furtune and chatted about Alipay and its plans for the US market.
Considering Alipay already services a population that is more than the US population, it now hopes to rope in other successful Company’s in the US with its online payment services.
Further, Alipay wants to be at the forefront of the new bridge connecting US retailers with Chinese consumers. Li agrees that the average aspiration of middle-class Chinese is to own US products. Therefore, the aim of Alipay is to empower big as well as small retailers from the North American continent to sell to its members.
BABA had in 2014, brought two of the leading US-based retailers Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue to sell to China-based buyers.
Uber in China is successful because of the link with Alipay as the payment partner, claimed Li. Soon, it would bring in Carter’s, jewelry.com as well as Walgreen Skin Store to the Chinese buyers.
Jingming Li also thinks that Ant Financial might have the potential to become a public company though no word on when this could happen.
Sources: fortune.com
