Australian food chain introduces 'facepay'

Australia-based food retailer 100% Genuine has challenged China's current retail payment system by launching the technology "facepay" in Shanghai on Monday.

The smart payment system, the first of the kind in the world, is supported by face recognition technology and will be first used in its chain stores in China, said Chen Haibo, managing director of the 100% Genuine Imported Foods Chain Stores.

Current payments systems require customers to pay in cash or by using credit cards or online, but some have payment security problems. The new technology scans a customer's faces and hands, making the payment safe and convenient, Chen said.

He said businesses record the capillary network data of customers' faces and hands into their cash registers and then bind the data with the customers' payment accounts and store it in 100% Genuine's big data center.

When customers come to the chain store, they need only to show their faces and hands before cash registers. Once they are recognized, the payment is completed.

Statistics show mobile Internet payment transactions in 2013 exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($162.6 billion), almost 14 times the amount in 2012, and leaving huge market potential up for grabs.

Chen said the 100% Genuine Imported Food (Shanghai) Co Ltd, with a registered capital of 50 million yuan, will be responsible for 100% Genuine's business in the Chinese market.

The company will build its China headquarters, which will reportedly occupy an area of 1.8 hectares, in Shanghai.

"Doing so aims to enlarge our business in China," he said, adding that the company plans to set up 5,000 community chain stores in the country's 25 provinces with food materials imported from 30 countries in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

"Our target is to create annual sales of $2 billion," Chen said.

He said enterprises from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand have applied to cooperate with the company.

"We have decided to move our business into the Australian and Asian markets in early 2015," he said.