New | Pay with a selfie? Alibaba's Jack Ma debuts face-recognition payment tech
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is developing a technology that will allow users to pay for goods and services by taking a photo of their face.
The technology was unveiled during a speech by company founder Jack Ma Yun at the CeBit conference in Hannover, Germany, where Ma was the headline speaker.
In a Steve Jobs-style "one more thing" moment, at the end of his speech Ma told the audience he wanted to show them a "small innovative product that we designed".
"[Using] online payments to buy things is always a big headache," he said. "You forget your password, yo worry about security, today we'll show you a new technology, how people in the future will buy things online."
He then used his smartphone to buy a souvenir stamp from a 1948 Hannover trade fair found on Alibaba's e-commerce site. Using face recognition software, the phone approved Ma's identity and processed the payment.
"In six days this stamp will be delivered to the office of the mayor of Hannover," Ma said.
Alipay was initially part of Alibaba itself but was spun out by Ma ahead of the parent company's blockbuster IPO in New York last year. At an event in Hong Kong last month, Ma suggested that the financial affiliate may also go public in the near future.
"I think Ant Financial should go public but it is still a baby," Mas said. "I haven’t considered when and where to list the operation."
Smile to Pay will be launched in China first, before rolling out in other countries. At present no launch date is set. A company spokeswoman said Alibaba is "quite serious" about developing the technology.