Chinese tourists can now use the Alipay mobile application on their phones to purchase overseas transportation cards, China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Holdings Group's third-party online payment arm announced on Dec. 1, Monday.
Alipay partnered with Macau Pass SA, Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (NETS), and Bangkok Smartcard System Co. The partnership made the sales of Macau Pass, Singapore's FlashPay card and Thailand's Rabbit card available on Alipay Wallet app.
This move came after Alipay offered a cross-border online shopping festival for Black Friday to Chinese consumers in November. In July, Alipay signified its plans to promote its globalization by rolling out an overseas tax refund program.
A press release sent to the Global Times via email confirmed that shortly after scanning the bar code at special counters in airports in Macau, Singapore and Thailand, purchasers of overseas transportation cards can get the three companies' local transportation cards.
When the purchasers return the cards at the airports, the remainder of the money will be deposited directly into their Alipay accounts in yuan.
South Korea's T-money transportation card will also be listed on the app soon. T-money is run by Korea Smart Card Co. and is widely used in South Korea.
Alipay has also announced its plans to collaborate with other countries' transportation card firms to apply such services.
At a press conference in Beijing, Ant Financial's international business vice president Peng Yijie said: "We are negotiating with Hong Kong's Octopus Holdings Ltd."
Beijing-based market research firm iResearch industry analyst Wang Weidong also pointed out Alipay's need to develop its international expansion considering the maturing domestic online payment market and the slow growth of the profit margin amid fierce competition.
The World Tourism Cities Federation has revealed that the main concern of Chinese tourists traveling abroad is transportation and most of them prefer taking public transportation overseas.
Moreover, Chinese tourists' online travel transactions have increased as they are becoming more comfortable with online travel arrangements than a travel agency consultation, Xinhuanet has learned.