Alibaba's Alipay leads third-party mobile payment service in China; Ant Financial eyes partnership with Chinese, foreign companies to expand market

Alibaba's Alipay is leading in terms mobile payment in China. It is fighting with Tencent's Tenpay and Unionpay by the Chinese government, in using mobile devices in paying for e-commerce and even in paying in selected stores and shops in China.

Alipay now has more than 350 million users, and 270 million of them are active ones, and is preferred means by some users in paying for a product compared to personally paying physical money, or credit card. According to the VP of Ant Financial Services, Fan Zhiming, Alipay is now becoming a necessity for the younger generations, "Alipay was established in 2004, initially to support escrow payment for Alibaba's online marketplace transactions,"

"Mobile payment is becoming more important, especially the younger generation, and they make up a great part of Alipay users. So it is important that we develop our mobile payment capabilities via Alipay Wallet." he said.

Alipay seem to be growing larger and larger, and will even be operating outside China as it has been reportedly going on talks to partner with different companies inside, and outside China.

One example is, One Horizon Group Inc.'s Chinese retail Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service brand named, Aishou, which now supports mobile payment platforms including Alipay. One Horizon Group Inc., is a company that develops VoIP platform, for smartphones.

Aside from Aishou, Alipay is reportedly having talks in making an alliance with Apple Pay. This in order for Alipay to help facilitate Apple Pay's entry into the Chinese market, and also to educate and demonstrate the use of the service in their new market. In exchange, reports say that if the partnership pushes through, Apple can help Alipay in switching from their latest technology from using QR codes in payment, to the use of NFC technology which makes money payment efficient and convenient.

Ant Financial is also looking at working with Xiaomi in creating a smart wristband that will allow users to pay using the "Mi Band" in stores. Xiaomi, is a Chinese smartphone maker company.

Reports say that although Alipay is on the lead in terms of mobile payment in China, its competitors, Tenpay and Unionpay is also not far behind. Aside from them, Alipay has international competitors, like Paypal.