Chinese consumers used Alipay to make $8.7 Trillion in payment transactions last year. The world's largest mobile and online payment platform, Alipay has over half a billion active users.
During the federally-led tourism mission to China (June 2018) NWTT and ITI officials identified Alipay as an important tool to encourage Chinese travellers to consider the NWT as a destination, purchase their tourism experiences and spend money once they got here.
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At a Business After Hours event last week sponsored by Northwest Territories Tourism (NWTT), Yellowknife business owners got an opportunity to learn, first hand, how this third-party mobile and online payment platform can benefit and grow tourism-based businesses in the NWT.
Following the event, we sat down with the presenter - Rita Liu, Head of Alipay Canada.
ITI: What is Alipay?
LIU: The Chinese marketplace is now cashless and cardless. Alipay is, in essence, an e-commerce “super-app” - a lifestyle enabler for Chinese people that allows them to use the “wallet” on their mobile devices to complete all financial transactions: purchases, payments, transfers, investments, credit applications, loans and so on.
ITI: So why is this something that NWT businesses would be interested in?
LIU: We want to make it as easy as we can for our Chinese customers to travel. Alipay offers a sense of comfort for the Chinese traveller. Far from their homes and in a situation where they are experiencing language difficulties, it is a familiar and recognizable connection; something they use 10 times a day at home. Alipay will help to make them feel at home. It is a way for NWT businesses to say: “Welcome, we value your visit”.
Above: Rita Liu of Alipay Visits the Northwest Territories Diamond Centre — one of several Alipay-enabled businesses in Yellowknife
ITI: And spend more money…
LIU: Yes, if you want to be simply pragmatic, 93% of Chinese travelers surveyed say they shop more when they can use their mobile wallet.
But it’s also more than that. Alipay is a part of the much-larger Ant Financial - a related company of Alibaba Group, the multinational conglomerate specializing in e-commerce. Beyond the convenience of a point-of-sale-platform, it offers the added value of exposure and a marketing platform for NWT businesses who add the Alipay option to their customer service.
Alipay enables Chinese travellers to fully engage with their destinations. It starts when they use their mobile phone to look into travelling to the NWT or book an airline ticket. For NWT restaurants, retailers, hotels, it means opportunities for their products to be seen by Alipay network customers before they travel. Better yet, when they arrive these businesses show up on the mobile app that tells them where they can use Alipay. NWT businesses who offer Alipay can even use it to sell their products online.
ITI: The Chinese marketplace is much larger than ours in the NWT. Will Alipay work here?
LIU: When Alipay was introduced to the tiny market that is Santa Claus Village, Finland, arrivals grew by 60% in the first year. So did the spending. Yes it will work here. It already is.
