Alibaba Alipay Extend Partnership With Uber

Uber and Alipay take their domestic partnership to foreign markets.

It was reported previously that Alibaba Group Holding wants to extend the service of its online payment affiliate Alipay for the people. All of a sudden there has been a sudden increase in Chinese tourists and their main destination for vacations is the European continent. Alibaba proudly announced a couple of months ago that it will expand Alipay deeply in the region to allow users pay on the go for whatever they need. It is now believed that Uber will soon collaborate with the Chinese tech giant to expand cooperation with Alipay.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the most popular ride sharing app, Uber, will soon allow the Chinese users to use Uber’s services and pay for rides using Alipay even if they are traveling outside China. Regardless of the fact that Alibaba Group holds stakes in Didi Kuaidi Joint Co. which is the rival Chinese ride sharing service, it is closely working with Uber to explore new opportunities within and outside China. Uber users in China already pay for their rides through Alipay. It is the most common and popular online payment service in the region owned and operated by Ant Financial Services Group.

Uber-Alibaba partnership was announced on Monday which stated that both parties are happy to extend cooperation beyond China boundaries. Uber stated, “The cross-border payment services with Alipay will first start with Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan this month, and will be extended to more regions around the world during the year.”

The competition between online payment services and online ride sharing/ride hailing app is intensifying recently in the domestic market. But with the announcement of this partnership extends it beyond the Chinese mainland. As Alibaba chose to partnership with Uber regardless of holding stakes in Didi Kuaidi, the Chinese ride hailing app expands its operations in international markets as well and teamed up with Lyft. This also shocked analysts that Didi Kuaidi chose Lyft over Alipay.

Didi Kuaidi invested in Lyft in May last year where it participated in a fundraising round. According to the sources familiar to matter, it is believed that the firm will allow its Chinese customers to book Lyft rides in the foreign countries through Chinese online payment systems. A spokeswoman of Didi Kuaidi stated that the company will soon be rolling out more cross border products by the end of this year.

The domestic rivalry might soon cross the border as Uber’s partnership with Alipay concerns Tencent Holdings. The Chinese internet giant also invested in Lyft and Didi Kuaidi.

The Chief Executive of Uber, Travis Kalanick, said in October “Users of Tencent’s WeChat messaging and social media application were unable to tap Uber and news articles shared in WeChat appeared to favor Didi Kuaidi.  Tencent had blocked Uber from WeChat last year, citing the company had violated some of WeChat’s marketing rules.”