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Apple lets Siri integrate with Alipay, one of China’s most popular payment platforms

Move is a signal of Alipay’s dominance when it comes to payments in China

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QR codes are cheap and easy for small mom-and-pop stores to use. (Picture: South China Morning Post)
This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Apple will now allow Siri to support voice commands for Alibaba’s Alipay -- in a tacit acknowledgement that local players are miles ahead when it comes to payments in China.

It means users will be able to tell Siri to open the Alipay payment screen directly, instead of having to tap open the app and then navigate to the page.

(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba.)

Though it might seem like a simple software update, the move is a big departure for Apple, which has been pushing its Apple Pay product in China’s booming mobile payment market -- worth a staggering 50 times the size of the US market.
QR codes, used by Alipay and WeChat Pay, are more popular in China that NFC-based payment systems. (Picture: South China Morning Post)
QR codes, used by Alipay and WeChat Pay, are more popular in China that NFC-based payment systems. (Picture: South China Morning Post)
It illustrates the sheer dominance of established players, with Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent's WeChat Pay making up 90 percent of the market.
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