Alipay looking to expand its services in Macau – General Manager

“Alipay is looking into how to provide better services to Macau local residents and expand the number of local businesses covered by its e-payment system in the future”, the General Manager of Alipay for Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia & Middle East, Venetia Lee said today.

Currently, over 10,000 stores in Macau are able to use Alipay, but Macau residents are not allowed to use Alipay in Macau due to the Mainland’s financial policy regulations.

Ms. Lee explained that since only users with Chinese ID are allowed to use Alipay outside the Mainland, a common issue is the company’s payment services found around the world.

Alipay has created an independent mobile payment application – ‘Alipay Hong Kong’, which allows Hong Kong residents to use their mobile payment service in Hong Kong, the Mainland, as well as other countries.

Ms. Lee said that Alipay plans to facilitate its payment service for Macau residents as well, while also working on expanding its coverage in Macau.

“It is a bit difficult to expand our service in small stores in Macau, but we believe that if our overall coverage keeps increasing, there would be more small shops willing to join us in the future,” she added.

On the other hand, as Alibaba Group is promoting global traveling through its application ‘Fliggy’ as a comprehensive travel platform for tourists, Ms. Lee believed that their platform could assist the tourism industry in Macau.

“Our research finds out that the many user’s segments of the post-90s generation would like to consume casually during a trip, rather than planning too much before, thus our ‘Fliggy’ integrates many online and offline tourism products which aim to influence visitors when they are traveling. We are looking for more tourism products and resources in Macau and we believe that we can provide a more specialized and ad hoc experience for tourists when they are visiting Macau,” Ms. Lee added.