Alibaba and Apple in Talks Over China-Focused Payments Partnership

An Alibaba executive said today that the Chinese e-commerce company and Apple are currently in talks over a partnership to provide a payments solution for China, reports The Wall Street Journal. The comments were shared by Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai, who also noted that the partnership would focus on Apple's presence in China and that the details are still being worked out.

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A partnership between both companies could potentially see Alibaba's Alipay electronic payments service integrate with Apple Pay to provide a comprehensive mobile payments solution for the Chinese market. The comments from Tsai come weeks after Alibaba founder Jack Ma noted that he was interesting in teaming up Apple in the payments sector.

Earlier this year, Alipay overtook PayPal to become the largest mobile payments platform in the world with an estimated $150 billion in transactions processed in 2013. Alibaba also noted that the service has 300 million registered users and 100 million mobile users. Integrating Alipay with Apple Pay would be the latest move by Apple to expand its presence in China, which has grown over the past few years. Last year, Apple struck a deal with country's biggest carrier China Mobile and has opened a number of new retail stores in populated areas like Shanghai and Shenzhen.

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Top Rated Comments

Kissaragi Avatar
138 months ago
Any company thats beating paypal gets my full support!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CB1234 Avatar
138 months ago
I wonder if MCX are in talks as well with the Chinese to role out CurrentC in China....

/s
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacTCE Avatar
138 months ago
This will be a huge boost for ApplePay. Glad to see this is happening.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JeffyTheQuik Avatar
138 months ago
I think the deal is very near being finalized.

They usually don't talk much until then.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Parasprite Avatar
138 months ago
What issue do you have with Paypal? Actually I wished it would've expanded more into the retail sector rather than just being online. It's a very convenient way to pay for stuff.

It's great as a buyer.

It's absolute hell as a seller.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
discuit Avatar
138 months ago
Last year, Apple struck a deal (https://www.macrumors.com/2013/12/04/apple-finally-signs-deal-with-china-mobile-for-december-iphone-launch/) with country's biggest carrier China Mobile and has opened a number of new retail stores in populated areas like Shanghai (https://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/23/new-two-story-shanghai-apple-retail-store-opens-saturday-at-the-iapm-mall/) and Shenzhen (https://www.macrumors.com/2012/10/29/apple-retail-roundup-palo-alto-store-hurricane-sandy-preparations-shenzhen-store/)

Well, I would hope they're not opening retail stores in the wilderness.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)