There’s no doubt that Alipay is the king of mobile payment systems in China, and that’s no mean feat given that it’s one of the world’s largest markets with a massive potential userbase behind it.
Ten years after it started, Alipay rose to impressive prominence, and in recent days, has been spotted plotting expansions. New reports suggest that it may have a surprisingly clear path ahead, as many of its competitors don’t seem interested in fighting it off.
The reports came from Forbes, who noted that, in the United States, the mobile payment industry is comparatively valuable, but there’s no real leader as of yet in the country.
Apple Pay is certainly a force to be reckoned with, but it operates in a walled garden and can’t even count much of its own user base in its operations. PayPal has been actively pursuing on the strength of mobile transactions, but neither company can come close to Alipay, who counts around 450 million users to its credit.
Alipay, however, is proceeding rapidly outside of China. A slate of 10 international airports—Auckland, Munich and Tokyo—are all taking Alipay on at least some level, and over 80,000 individual retailers are in with Alipay right now.
This is said to be part of a larger bid to offer Alipay services to Chinese tourists abroad, but how long would it take for Alipay to switch over and invite the whole world into the pool?
That being said, Alipay’s launch abroad would still run into problems. The security matters that are felt with home-grown mobile payments systems in the United States would likely be more felt in a Chinese-make system.
After all, the issues of lead in children’s toys or the 2007 pet food recalls after melamine was found in dangerous levels likely haven’t escaped some minds. The notion of turning over valuable account details to a Chinese firm may well leave some unnerved, and limit its ability to impact the market outside of China.
With the right motivating forces like discounts and such, this may not be such a problem. It’s clear, though, that Alipay might be a force to be reckoned with, and could deliver some serious impact in the near term.
