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Alibaba and Apple in Talks Over China-Focused Payments Partnership

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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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.

alibaba_apple-800x309.jpg
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.

Article Link: Alibaba and Apple in Talks Over China-Focused Payments Partnership
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/11/alibaba-apple-payments-solution-china/
ciaocibai

ciaocibai

macrumors newbie
Jan 16, 2011
13
2
Exciting news

Considering Alipay is awesome and widely accepted for goods and services around China, I think this is very good news. If they could get Alipay and Unionpay on board they'd cover the vast majority of the market. Very keen to see how this develops.
 
tonyunreal

tonyunreal

macrumors regular
Feb 25, 2010
234
38
I really hope Apple can strike a deal with Alibaba, the alternatives to Alipay in China is way way inferior.
 
Fzang

Fzang

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2013
1,315
1,081
Hope it will help bridge China with the West. Currently, it's almost impossible to deposit money to your Alipay account with a Western payment method such as Visa.
 
brianvictor7

brianvictor7

macrumors 65816
Oct 24, 2013
1,054
429
United States
Definitely a slow news day when an article has been up for a few hours with only a handful of posts. Seriously, this is good news for us. Modernization of the payment system!
 
Kwill

Kwill

macrumors 68000
Mar 10, 2003
1,595
1
If Alibaba inks a deal, perhaps they will finally be able to purchase a decent logo.
 
iososx

iososx

macrumors 6502a
Aug 23, 2014
859
6
USA
Sure are lots of naive Apple devotees eager to get in bed with those just waiting for a chance to take advantage, invading what little privacy that remains. Its mind numbing.
 
Parasprite

Parasprite

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2013
1,698
144
HenryDJP said:
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.
Click to expand...

It's great as a buyer.

It's absolute hell as a seller.
 
W

winston1236

macrumors 68000
Dec 13, 2010
1,902
319
HenryDJP said:
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.
Click to expand...

My issue with them is they masquerade as a transaction processing company and then act like an escrow.

Horrendous for a seller.
 
S

serendip7

macrumors newbie
Feb 28, 2014
10
4
cautiously optimistic

I would really like a tie up between Apple and Alibaba. I have a very large position in Apple...

Unfortunately UnionPay currently dominates the mobile payments in China and since UnionPay is state run... I really doubt the Chinese government will allow Apple to get a significant slice of the pie. The government want to keep tabs on their citizens. I doubt they'll give up having control of the purchase history information of their people.. especially if mobile payment really takes off.
 
dontwalkhand

dontwalkhand

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2007
6,373
2,863
Phoenix, AZ
serendip7 said:
I would really like a tie up between Apple and Alibaba. I have a very large position in Apple...

Unfortunately UnionPay currently dominates the mobile payments in China and since UnionPay is state run... I really doubt the Chinese government will allow Apple to get a significant slice of the pie. The government want to keep tabs on their citizens. I doubt they'll give up having control of the purchase history information of their people.. especially if mobile payment really takes off.
Click to expand...

UnionPay is also partners with Discover, a non-Apple Pay partner as of late. Discover cards work where UnionPay is accepted, and many businesses only take UnionPay due to low fees. So if you want to use a CC in China, you pretty much have to take a Discover card with you.
 
H

HenryDJP

Suspended
Nov 25, 2012
5,084
843
United States
Parasprite said:
It's great as a buyer.

It's absolute hell as a seller.
Click to expand...

If you're referring to the fees they charge for sellers I absolutely agree.

----------
winston1236 said:
My issue with them is they masquerade as a transaction processing company and then act like an escrow.

Horrendous for a seller.
Click to expand...

As I said to the other poster who mimicked your words, I wholeheartedly agree it's terrible to be a seller working with Paypal.
 
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