China's third-party payment tool Alipay, which is backed by online giant Alibaba Group Holding, reached a deal with payment processor First Data that will let its users shop with more than 4 million retail partners in the U.S., Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
"This will open up Alipay to where it's truly ubiquitous across the U.S. and hopefully more countries later," Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America, was quoted as saying in the report.
In late November, Alipay announced cooperation with First Data to introduce Alipay to some merchants in the U.S., domestic news portal cnstock.com said Wednesday. The report said that after half a year of preparations, it is the time for Alipay to be introduced to the whole U.S.
Alipay said it would promote the payment tool in some shopping places that Chinese tourists favor and then advance it to other locations such as amusement parks, restaurants and supermarkets in the future, according to cnstock.com.
Alipay had made arrangements with U.S. companies such as Uber and Airbnb in recent years to serve Chinese tourists, media reports said.
