Consumers in China will soon be able to pay for their chicken via their mobile device after KFC China announced that next month it will be accepting mobile payments from the Alipay mobile wallet. With nearly 5,000 locations across China, the deal marks another significant announcement in the push by Alipay to transition from online to offline payments.
Commenting on the deal, Fan Zhiming, president of Ant Financial’s payment business unit (part of the larger Alibaba Group that also is connected with Alipay) said,
“Alipay is dedicated to providing user-friendly and convenient mobile payment methods for our 300 million users. The cooperation with KFC China signifies a milestone of how Alipay will revamp offline payments across the country, and we are working closely with KFC China to provide better deals and services for customers.”
Mobile payments are already a big deal in China and Alipay has reported in the past that it far exceeds that of PayPal in terms of mobile payments, making it the largest mobile payment company in the world. While to date the majority of these payments have been mobile online initiated payments, the company is increasingly working to expand its in-store, physical POS payment capacity. Deals like this with KFC are a natural fit and ensure the Alipay wallet is used for the majority of transactions both online and offline.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, Global Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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