Alipay And UnionPay To Expand To Western Markets

Chinese mobile payment systems are expanding into Western markets, following their huge success in Eastern markets. Both Alibaba's Alipay and the UnionPay mobile payment system will be available in the West very soon, with Alipay being available in Europe for Chinese customers, and UnionPay being available to all consumers in Canada. UnionPay says that it will focus on “daily spending”, with the system having a 100 Canadian dollar spending cap, adding that there are already 70,000 merchants with the capabilities to use the feature. Similarly, Alipay is pushing further into Western markets after signing a deal with the Ingenico Group, who themselves processed 3.5 billion transactions last year. The payment feature will only be available to Chinese tourists, of whom 10 million travel to Europe each year, spending around 21 billion US dollars during their time abroad. 

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