Alipay to enable Hong Kong dollar eWallet service from Thursday

Alipay, the electronic payment service provider controlled by technology giant Alibaba Group, is expected to launch its Hong Kong dollar service on Thursday.

Alipay is the most popular online electronic payment service provider in mainland China, with more than 800 million users conducting 8.5 million transactions per day.

“For the very first time, Hongkongers can register for an Alipay account, load it with Hong Kong dollars, and use their Alipay eWallet to pay [in Hong Kong dollars] online and at brick-and-mortar stores where Alipay is accepted,” Worldpay chief product officer for global eCommerce business Kevin Dallas said in a statement.

In its Global Payments Report issued recently, Worldpay said it expects this year to be “a breakthrough year for so-called “alternative payment methods” which are “inching past” credit card payment methods for the first time, with a market share of 51 per cent.

It expected electronic wallets to overtake credit cards in the global electronic commerce market by 2019. Alipay’s Hong Kong service had been limited to payments made in yuan.

Apple Pay and Samsung Pay launched their Hong Kong services this year, and we may soon seen the entrance of more players, according to Dallas.