BBVA API Market
The spectacular growth that Alipay has experienced in recent years has resulted in many companies starting to incorporate this payment method into their platforms. APIs facilitate this transformation, expanding your target audience and adding a new payment gateway for your customers.
Alipay is the most widely used cell phone payment service in China, as it allows payments to be made in both physical and online stores in this Asian country. To use it, users must open an Alipay account and link their credit or debit card in order to use their phone to make payments without having to carry their bank cards.
Its operation is somewhat similar to that of other payment methods available in Spain, such as Samsung Pay or Apple Pay. Once the card is linked, you can now start using the application, with only your cell phone and incorporating Alipay’s security measures. But the firm wants to go a step further and is already introducing facial recognition payments to some merchants in China, so that you no longer even need to use your smartphone in the checkout process.
Transactions are made without commissions or intermediaries, which makes it even easier and more attractive to make transactions through it. It is for this reason that it is so popular in the country where it was created, China, where most commercial establishments and many utilities allow payment through Alipay. Also, in some online stores, especially Aliexpress, which is part of the conglomerate of companies owned by its parent company, Alibaba.
Although most of its business is currently in China, Alipay has been preparing its international expansion for a few years. In early 2019, it obtained the e-money license that allows it to operate in Europe and reached different collaboration agreements with more than 100 banks on the old continent.
So far, however, its business strategy has been somewhat different from serving local citizens to make their payments. At the moment, it has been sold as an option for Chinese tourists arriving in Europe to make payments abroad, as a Chinese bank account must be linked to the application. In fact, the active accounts in Europe are of Chinese citizens making payments in Europe, although it is also used by travelers who go to China to make their purchases in this country.
Alipay arrived in Spain led by BBVA, in a collaboration that developed a technological and banking platform that allows El Corte Inglés, Europe’s largest department store chain, to receive payments from Chinese tourists using Alipay. Since then, BBVA has integrated Alipay into its SmartPay service, which converts a cell phone into a means of payment through QR codes that process the payment of a product or service.
In recent years, the use of Alipay in Spain is expanding and generalizing through APIs which offers a simple integration of Alipay’s payment method into your establishment. Consequently, a developer can implement a solution for any merchant to accept Alipay just as it accepts other payment methods known to all.
It is easy to use:
The advantages of incorporating Alipay into your accepted payment methods are obvious: to enable a new payment method so that Chinese tourists can pay the way they are used to through their cell phone and from the app itself.
Every year, 400,000 Chinese visitors flock to Spain, spending an average of 2,000 euros per person. They are a type of tourist who do not usually use cash or cards in their purchases, as they are used to paying with Alipay in their country, which is a method they fully trust. And it makes sense to think that they also want to use it in Europe.
Your business will be able to offer a number of discounts and promotions specially designed for Chinese audiences.
These offers will attract tourists, increase your income, and clearly differentiate you from your competition, especially with regard to a type of customer as demanding as the Chinese.
Alipay is still a new payment platform. It makes it possible, among other things, to add a new method through which your customers can pay for their purchases, in a simple, secure way and through their cell phone.
And while it is only used for the time being so that Chinese citizens can pay in Spain, their strategy may change in the future and expand to other countries, and its implementation will serve to enable a new payment gateway with millions of users and through QR codes.
Alipay wants to focus on technologies that use biometric features, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, to identify users.
Alipay uses all the necessary security measures in every transaction, and this is a guarantee of peace of mind for your customers.
Are you interested in financial APIs? Discover all the APIs we can offer you at BBVA
An API is a very useful mechanism that connects two pieces of software equipment to exchange messages or data in a standard format such as XML or JSON. Thus, it becomes an instrument that can be used to search for revenue, open the doors to talent or innovate and automate processes.
Open finance is expected to be regulated over the next few years, leading to a new open data ecosystem Open finance is making its way into the legal system through the consolidation of several initiatives that will lend it legal protection. Once this is complete, customers will have an open finance framework that protects their data […]
Ecommerce has continued to grow steadily in Spain, except during the pandemic, which has already been overcome in terms of online shopping. Ecommerce has been making inroads among the Spanish for over two decades. In 2000, it was a marginal and niche activity. Now it is almost universal. Almost all Spaniards with internet access shop online […]
