First Data Expands Alipay Acceptance To 600M Chinese Users

Ant Financial’s Alipay is expanding across North America as it broadens its partnership with First Data, the companies announced Monday (March 19).

The digital payment platform has added 35,000 merchants across the region, enabling Alipay’s 600 million Chinese consumers the same payment experience at the point of sale (POS) while traveling abroad in the United States.

First Data first announced last May that it would be integrating Alipay into its Clover POS systems at U.S. merchants.

“First Data continues to be a premier partner for Alipay,” said Alipay Americas President Souheil Badran in a statement. “In a few short months, First Data has significantly expanded the number of merchant locations accepting Alipay through seamless integration. Now, Chinese travelers are enjoying the familiarity of their Alipay Mobile Wallet at many of their favorite locations across the United States. We look forward to continuing to partner with First Data as we aim to enable Alipay at millions of additional merchant locations in 2018.”

“We are thrilled with the significant interest we’ve seen from merchants who want to offer Alipay at the point of sale,” added First Data General Manager, Global Debit Solutions, Nandan Sheth in another statement. “As our partnership continues to mature, we are excited to roll out Alipay on an even larger scale. Businesses that offer Alipay are able to benefit from the growing number of Chinese travelers coming to the U.S. by offering a frictionless payment experience that transcends country, currency and language barriers.”

Earlier this month, Alipay said its collaboration with Canadian payment company Motion Pay Technology similarly expanded its presence in North America, with Motion Pay facilitating Alipay acceptance across merchants in Canada as Alipay continues its global expansion in an effort to enable existing Chinese consumers to use Alipay when they travel.

Separately, Alipay also revealed that more than 1,000 Starbucks locations across South Korea now accept its payments technology, making it the first third-party mobile payment tool accepted by the coffee chain in the country.