Chinese tourists and students will have another alternative way to pay for goods and services while in Australia, thanks to a new agreement inked on Monday by Commonwealth Bank of Australia and China's Alipay, the multibillion-dollar finance business of Alibaba's founder Jack Ma.
Under the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) Alipay.com, which is operated by Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group will collectively come up with innovative payment solutions that will allow Australian consumers pay for purchases made through Alibaba Group's e-commerce websites including AliExpress, a platform used by Chinese merchants to sell to global consumers.
Both merchants said they will also work together on a simpler payment solution that allows Chinese tourists and students to use Alipay for in-store payments at Australian retailers.
At present, Alipay is accepted by some 300 Australian tourism retailers in Sydney and Melbourne, including Sydney's BridgeClimb, pharmacy Chemist Warehouse and JR Duty Free.
It is learnt that approximately 19,000 Chinese tourists travel to Australia every week and spend almost 8,000 Australian dollars (6074 U.S. dollars) per person.
"Australia now receives more than one million tourists from China annually and this is expected to continue to rise," Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of Ant Financial Services Group and Head of Alipay International told Xinhua in an email interview.
"Along with the recent partnership announcement with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, we expect the adoption of Alipay by tourism retailers, merchants and destinations to continue to grow over the coming period," Feagin said.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank Institutional Banking and Markets Group Executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said: "We are thrilled to be the first Australian bank to collaborate with Alipay in building an innovative payments solution that leverages our leading e-commerce and point of sale platforms."
