Alipay adds digital storage feature for identification documents

Alipay, the third party payments provider operated by Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Financial, has launched a new feature that allows users to store documents as the company looks towards helping its users further digitalise their lifestyle.

Alipay already allows its 450 million users to link their bank or credit cards to its app and make payments on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall, China’s largest e-commerce marketplaces. The app also lets users make payments to various merchants via QR codes in regions such as China, Southeast Asia and Europe. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

The new documents feature allows Chinese users to snap a picture of their identification card, driving license and even property deeds to store the relevant information within the app.

However, the digital identification documents stored in Alipay cannot replace physical documents currently required when a user opens a bank account in China. Alipay said the function is currently only for the user’s reference, since they may not always have their documents with them when they need to recall specific information. The feature is also available only to Chinese citizens.

But digital documents could potentially replace the need for physical identity cards or driving licenses in the future, according to Zhang Yi, the chief executive of Guangdong-based consultancy iiMedia Research.