Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Jenny Chen
In a study by Bain and Company China comprises of one of the fastest growing online markets.
On Nov. 19, 2013 Chinese e-payment company Alipay, International signed a partnership with Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP). Launched in 2004, Alipay is a subsidiary of the Alibaba group – which owns China’s largest B2B online marketplace Alibaba.com as well as other marketplaces including taobao.com and tmall.com. UATP is the airline owned payment network accepted by thousands of merchants for air, rail, hotel and travel agency payments.
The Alipay/UATP partnership will allow Chinese consumers to tap into the UATP airline/travel network using a payment method they are comfortable with and used to.
Alipay says that in 2012, it held over 700 million registered accounts in mainland China. Because of their partnership, Alipay Vice President and Chief Architect Jingming Li says that this is the beginning of an increasingly globalized online marketplace.
“Chinese shoppers trust Alipay,” Li said. “They are used to us.” Li said that because of the partnership, US businesses will have increasingly greater access to Chinese shoppers.
Li said that Alipay has partnered with other US companies before. iherb.com – a nutritional supplements company – recently partnered with Alipay and reported that iHerb’s sales on cn.iHerb.com increased 244.52%compared with the prior six-month period and 684.15% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Wendy Ward, the VP of marketing at UATP expressed excitement over the new partnership between UATP and Alipay: “The airlines, our main client-base, will benefit from this with increased traffic and purchases. It’s a win-win-win for UATP – Alipay – the US airlines,” Ward said.
Businesses interested in partnering with Alipay should contact: alipay@us.alibaba-inc.com
