According to a Reuters article on CNN.com, Chinese ecommerce company, Alibaba is launching a new online payment service that it is calling Alipay. Alibaba hopes that Alipay will become the default online payment method throughout China and all of Asia.
In a country where cash is still king, Alibaba Chief Executive Jack Ma told Reuters in an interview “PayPal solved the problems for U.S. e-commerce and Alipay is the way we want to solve the Chinese e-commerce payment problem.”
Ma goes onto say, “”Alibaba does not have to prove that the Taobao model works, we don’t have to prove the Alipay model works. We are just trying to prove how big the market is.” Taobao is Alibaba’s consumer auction site and rival to eBay China. Alipay is supported by the four largest banks in China, including China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
According to Ma, the Alipay service is free now with no license fees or transaction fees. From 2003 to 2004 the company’s revenues and profits more than doubled and are expected to once again double this year.
China is intent of resisting Western influence, which they have every right to do. In the technology sector, apparently they have great minds to back this up as well. It will be interesting to see what new technologies the Chinese come up with that will be of use to the Western cultures and if there will be a free-flow of technological ideas between the two cultures.
Who knows, the next big auction website in the West may be called, perhaps, CheBay? Could happen. We’ll just have to wait and see if we’re as accepting of Eastern technological ideas as China is of accepting Western technological ideas.
In the meantime, be prepared for the next large, upcoming Chinese Search Site, Choogle. Need to find a hotel in Hong Kong? Get Choogling.
Good title, and good point. Alipay will open up the ecommerce market in China. The next hurdle in China is distribution which is being worked out on several fronts and then boom! With only 7% of the Chinese population on the internet to date and with broadband in the wings, this is gonna be one big bubble. But when will it burst? IMHO, not for awhile, better jump on it. dt