CBA taps China market with Alipay sign-up

Commonwealth Bank has signed up with Alipay in a move that will allow Chinese tourists to make purchases in Australia via the world’s largest mobile payment platform.

CBA says local businesses will from Thursday be able to add the Alipay app to the bank’s so-called Albert payment terminals, allowing them to better tap the $10.9 billion Chinese tourist market.

There are 94,000 of the wireless devices in Australia.

“This is a game changer and we are thrilled to be the first major bank to provide Alipay as a payment option for customers,” CBA business customer solutions boss Clive Van Horen said.

With 900 million users worldwide, Alipay is the workd;s largest mobile and online payment platform.

Apple Pay, which CBA last week said it would use from January, reportedly has about 250 million users.

Australia welcomed 1.4 million Chinese visitors in the past year, while 166,000 Chinese nationals study in the country.

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