In China, banknotes appear to be on their way out: taxi drivers are now refusing to crumple 10 Yuan bills after a ride, while merchants raise their eyes when you take out 100 Yuan banknotes since they don’t have enough money to give you the rest.
You can use Zhifùbao, often known as Alipay in the West, to pay almost everywhere in China.
Alibaba Group (abbreviated to Alipay) is a digital payment network developed in 2004 by Alibaba Group (abbreviated to Jtuán), a Chinese private company founded by Jack Ma in 1999 and headquartered in Hangzhou Zhejiang.
The Alibaba Group consists of numerous companies that operate in the e-commerce sector. One of the first “children” of this big company was the online shopping marketplace Taobao; later, Alipay was started to provide Taobao users with a safe and convenient way to make payments on the platform.
The firm’s founder, Jack Ma, has already been named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential men globally and is China’s second-richest person and the world’s thirty-ninth richest. A few years after founding the company, Jack Ma compared Alibaba Group to “the crocodile of the Yangzi River.” A few years after founding the company, Ma described Alibaba Group as “a strong winner in China, but afraid to expand its success outside its borders into the vast Western ocean.”
Alipay has quickly become a vital tool for anyone living in China. It streamlines many hectic aspects of living in a vast country that is still developing economically.
It appears that the Yangzi River’s “crocodile” is slowly emerging from its depths, reaching as far as Europe. Alipay, for example, “landed” at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport in April 2017 to allow the airport’s various Chinese passengers in transit to utilize its practical applications to make duty-free purchases.
Everything You Need to Know About Alipay?
This is essentially a virtual payment network that, similar to PayPal, protects consumers’ privacy while allowing them to make secure online payments.
For credit card holders, all you have to do is install the Alipay app on your phone and register in a few easy steps. Alipay already works with 65 financial companies, including Visa and Mastercard. However, a few features are only available if you use a Chinese credit (or debit) card.
After you’ve finished downloading the app, open it and go through the registration process: you’ll be asked to enter your phone number first, and then you’ll receive messages with a numeric code that you’ll need to enter into the app to continue with your registration.
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I’ll take you to the Alipay home page, where you’ll need to enter your credit card information: Access your account by clicking “Me,” then “Bank Cards,” and filling out the required information, such as your credit card details and your first and last names. Later, Alipay will prompt you to create a password to use the app to make payments.
How to use Alipay to send/ receive money.
The program is user-friendly, and the first two functional buttons are “Scan” and “Pay.” So, for example, when purchasing at certain stores and restaurants, you’ll be asked to scan their QR code with your phone and then input the amount of money to pay together with your password to complete the transaction.
Instead, the “Pay” button will display a bar code on your smartphone’s display that you can use to pay in restaurants and stores with scanners: it works similarly to supermarkets in that it will scan your code, and money will be transferred directly from your account without you entering your password.
It’s incredible how everything can be done with a simple “scan,” even at the market. The cherished old banknotes are hardly ever used in China, and the 1 Kuai coins are already considered antique relics. But be careful, because this kind of payment can easily tempt you to lose sight of your spending: every time I see that made payment through without a hitch, I become emotional!
This software offers many additional cool features, such as the “Collect” option, which generates a new barcode that you may display to individuals who owe you money. Before letting someone scan your code or enter the amount they owe you, you can define the amount they pay you by clicking “Specify an Amount.”
Alipay’s other main functions
You can also establish a chat with friends using the Alipay app: tapping “Friends” will open a page with your Alipay friends; to add new friends, scan the QR code of the person you would like to add to your page, using the “Transfer” option within the chat. This chat is beneficial for transferring money over great distances.
Sometimes, I felt I never had enough money to return to a buddy who had borrowed me money to buy a gift or dinner. Now I have no excuse as long as my bank account isn’t in the red.
Moving on to additional features of the program, clicking on the “Me” button allows you to manage your account: within our account (a more sore point), tapping on “Transactions” enable us to see a history of Alipay transactions, including a list of all payments completed.
The “Balance” button, which is still located on the profile page, displays the amount of money in your Alipay profile.
Money can also be easily transmitted from your Alipay account to your credit or debit card in an instant by first clicking on “Balance” and then “Withdraw,” or vice versa, by clicking on “Top Up” on the same screen. With this application, you can transfer money from your card to Alipay. This is a clever solution to keep reasonable control over your expenditures since you can currently choose to pay with Alipay or directly from your credit card.
Other exciting functions of Alipay
What I’ve listed above are the app’s primary functions. Still, Alipay is also useful for a variety of other reasons: You can use the “Didi Taxi” button to reserve and call a taxi, and then pay for it instantly with Alipay once you’ve finished your ride; suggest where you are or where you want to go in the app, and the app will connect you with the nearest taxi using a geo-locator like Google Maps; suggest where you are and where you want to go.
Use the same app to purchase airline tickets, movie or theater tickets, or even have food delivered to your home using the same app, known in China as (è le ma,” which means literally “you hungry?”
When you go to Alipay’s Take Out category, you may see which restaurants or pubs are nearest to you, find exceptional sushi in the neighborhood, or satisfy a thirst for China’s lace in the same app, Tea. As a new user of this application, you will be prompted to validate your cell number with a code received by SMS and enter your home location after selecting the drink or dish to add to your cart.
The app will guide you down the street with a step-by-step guide to getting bubble tea or chicken McNuggets, and your only responsibility will be to answer the messenger who will inform you that dinner has arrived. For example, you can utilize the bike-sharing service.
Furthermore, you can now pay for a metro journey with the Alipay app in Hangzhou, Alibaba’s hometown: say goodbye to the ticket that you can’t locate in your pockets or luggage when it’s time to leave, and those long lines at the machines to acquire the worn-out plastic cards.
QR scanners have been installed at the entrance and exit booths of 72 metro stations in Hangzhou: it’s like getting a metro card right on your phone. For people in Hangzhou, this link will help you get your metro card that never needs to be recharged and withdraw money straight from your profile at the metro exit.
I tried this new mode of payment right away while living in Hangzhou and was surprised by the speed and convenience. This QR scanner at metro entrances and exits will eventually be available in other Chinese cities.
Why choose Alipay?
Why use Alipay rather than the most famous social network in China? WeChat Pay and Alipay are identical in many respects and have similar functionality.
It’s simple: the platform offers more discounts, particularly during the Chinese New Year (Chnjié), which falls in February, when all stores and restaurants exhibit QR codes for (Hóngbo), the famous “red package” payment system, a conventional gift during this vacation, now available in a virtual version.
China is far ahead of us in virtual payments. Imagine being able to pay a few cents with all these applications for a photocopy in a copy shop without incurring extra fees, which is incredible considering that in Europe, some stores always charge commissions when paying with a credit or debit card for a sum less than 20 euros.
After nearly two years in China, I can confidently declare that Alipay has dramatically simplified many areas of my daily life. For example, I’ve kept my wallet hidden in a box for months, and I’ve also increased my reliance on mobile; if the battery dies or the phone breaks, you’re literally out of luck!
Alipay is available in which countries?
Alipay isn’t just available in mainland China; it’s also available in other nations. It’s not surprising, given that Apple is one of the most valuable firms on the planet. As a result, Alipay or partner companies can be found in Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Australia, the United States, Canada, are other countries.
What are currency rates used for cross-border payments?
According to Alipay’s website, the current lists published by partner banks reveal the currency rates used. The currency rates are changed regularly in most cases. Contact Alipay or one of their affiliate banks directly for additional details.
How extensive is Alipay’s user base?
Alipay has grown into a global payment powerhouse, with 1.3 billion yearly users as of July 2020. The business handled transactions worth roughly USD 17 trillion in China alone in just a year. Ali Pay will grow as a result of its global expansion and partnerships.
How much is Alipay worth?
According to CNBC, AliPay was worth over $ 200 billion in July 2020, which is a significant amount. H & M is valued at roughly USD 14 billion, whereas Ford is valued at about USD 27 billion.