Alibaba’s Chairman Jack Ma toldthe Wall Street Journal that Alibaba is interested in exploring a partnershipwith Apple:
“Alibaba’sChairman Jack Ma has said he is open to a tie-up between payments affiliateAlipay and the newly launched Apple Pay as he prepares to hit the US forpartnership deals later this week.
Mamade several comments during an interview at the WSJD Live global technologyconference in California late Monday that could forecast a potentialpartnership between Chinese payments giant Alipay and Apple Pay, as long as anequal deal could be reached.
“Ihope we can do something together,” Mr. Ma said, but cautioned that it shouldbe a “marriage” that both sides want.”
And Tim Cook of Apple is interested in discussions:
“AppleCEO Tim Cook said later at the same conference that he would be meeting with Malater this week to discuss potential partnerships, but did not specify whetherthese would relate to payments.”
The article also identifies why a relationship with Alibabawould prove valuable:
“Alibabahandles more e-commerce transactions than Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc combined,and Alipay already has 300 million active users. But neither service has muchof a presence among American retail customers. For now, Ma is happy to focus onserving his Chinese clientele, working on selling American and Europeanproducts to China, reversing the typical flow of goods over the past 10 to 15years.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation for Mercator Advisory Group
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