SAN MATEO, Calif.–There is new competition in the mobile payments space with two new entrants, this time from China.
One of the companies involved already has more customers using its platform than the entire population of the United States; the other of which has even more with than 650 million customers.
Both Alipay and social payments provider WeChat have entered the U.S. market with payments offerings. Alipay, which is China’s dominant mobile payments company under Ant Financial, has signed an agreement with First Data to allow Chinese tourists in the U.S. to make purchases at its four-million merchant locations using Alipay.
Alipay’s entry into the market follows that of Tencent Holdings’ WeChat.
“These consumers love to shop in the U.S. because they find items here they would otherwise not be able to find in China, and pricing that is much more affordable,” said Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America, in a statement. “Our focus will continue to be on enabling the Chinese consumer to use Alipay at U.S. merchants.”
Alipay already has a whopping 450 million monthly active users who will now also have access to four million merchants through First Data. There are more than four million Chinese visitors to the U.S. each year. WeChat boats 650 million monthly daily active users.