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Alipay opens platform to become one-stop gateway for 40 million service providers across China

  • The three-year plan involves working with 50,000 independent software vendors to help service providers adopt Alipay technologies
  • Alipay has encouraged developers to create mini programs to enable partners to access Alibaba’s ecosystem

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Simon Hu, chief executive of Ant Financial Services, unveils the three-year plan to open up the Alipay platform at the Alipay Partner Conference held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on March 10. Photo: Handout
Jane Zhang
Alipay, the widely used mobile payment app operated by Ant Financial Services, is pursuing an ambitious plan to become digitally entrenched in the businesses of 40 million service providers across China, in a move to gain an edge over rival platforms WeChat and Meituan Dianping in the world’s second largest economy.

The three-year plan involves opening up the Alipay platform as an online gateway for these enterprises – in industries ranging from consumer retail, food and beverage, and transport to hotels and accommodation, and medical services – to increase efficiency and serve more consumers by 2030, according to a statement from Ant Financial on Tuesday.

It would also entail Alipay working with 50,000 independent software vendors (ISVs) to help these 40 million service providers internally adopt the platform’s various technologies, such as payment, antifraud system, smart marketing, fund management, and customer insight, acquisition and engagement.

“The service sector in China is still in the nascent stages of digital transformation, and that means it has huge untapped potential,” said Ant Financial chief executive Simon Hu on Tuesday at the Alipay Partner Conference in Hangzhou, capital of eastern coastal Zhejiang province. Ant Financial is an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

Ant Financial’s latest initiative with Alipay, which currently has more than 1 million service providers on its platform, shows how the country’s major internet companies continue to compete aggressively in building “sticky” ecosystems, consisting of various platforms that can host multiple services to attract new users and keep their existing audience.

Launched in 2004, Alipay currently serves more than 900 million users in China and provides in-store mobile payment services in more than 50 markets around the world. Photo: Xinhua
Launched in 2004, Alipay currently serves more than 900 million users in China and provides in-store mobile payment services in more than 50 markets around the world. Photo: Xinhua

Expanding Alipay’s ecosystem of industry partners has gained more urgency for Ant Financial amid the country’s economic slowdown, which has been exacerbated by the trade war with the US and the coronavirus crisis.

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