Alipay customers who do not have a Chinese mainland bank card have been affected when using their accounts since Wednesday.
The third-party payment service provider, a unit of Alibaba Group Holding, asked its users in overseas markets to provide more personal data starting in April. It opened a channel on May 9 for users to verify their identities ahead of a July 1 deadline, said a statement Ant Financial, the operator of Alipay, sent to the Global Times on Thursday.
Overseas users will still be allowed to use other payment methods, such as credit cards, to shop on Alibaba's shopping platforms such as Taobao, said the company.
The payment giant did not reveal how many overseas users are involved, but the number is "quite small," a spokesperson told the Global Times on Thursday.
The payment tool has 450 million users.
Users in Hong Kong recently received notices from Alipay saying that they need to upload more personal information or their Alipay account balances will be frozen, said media reports.
However, what worries Hong Kong users - who number 1.4 million - is that they need to provide a mainland bank card and cellphone number, financial information provider rong360.com said Thursday.
Alipay's move is in line with domestic regulations on non-bank payment accounts.
In December 2015, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, released regulations on non-bank payment accounts, requiring real-name registration for such accounts by July 1.
As the domestic authority plans to tighten rules on money deposited in third-party accounts, Alipay appears likely to encounter setbacks in its overseas expansion, experts said Thursday.
The government has stepped up efforts to tighten regulations on Internet financing in a bid to secure the safety of users and the sector, and also to prevent money laundering, said Lu Zhenwang, founder of Shanghai Wanqing Commerce Consulting.
"However, overseas users may be more sensitive about a real-name registration system than domestic users because registering online using real names involves the risk of leaking personal information, which users outside of the mainland are more worried about," Lu told the Global Times on Thursday.
Alipay's requirement will damage its overseas users' enthusiasm for the payment tool, Lu said.
"People around me who like to use Alipay are almost all from the mainland, whether working or traveling in Hong Kong," Zhang Di, a 20-something white-collar worker who comes from the mainland and now works in Hong Kong, told the Global Times on Thursday.
"Users need to provide their mainland bank cards and phone numbers to use Alipay. I finished the registration one year ago and received no notice from the company in recent days," she said.
Lu Fang, another 20-something white-collar worker in Hong Kong, said, "Hongkongers prefer to use credit cards thanks to their convenience and wide acceptance."
"There are also various third-party payment tools in Hong Kong providing users many choices," Lu told the Global Times on Thursday.
