Alipay Stops All Offline POS Service Cornered by UnionPay

August 28, 2013 Leave a comment

Alipay Stops POS Service Cornered by UnionPay

08-27 15:25 Caijing

Alipay said last month it will invest 500 million yuan (79.4 billion U.S. dollars) over three years to provide 60,000 POS terminals. Alipay, the online payment arm of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, announced today it will stop all cash-on-deliver service, implying that the decision was made amid pressure from the China UnionPay, the only domestic bank card organization in the country. “Alipay will stop all offline POS (point-of-sale) businesses because of some reasons as everybody knows,” Alipay said in a post today on its official microblog account on Sina Weibo, “We are sorry for the inconvenience to users and partners, however, we’ll never here in the exploration of innovative payment.”Alipay said last month it will invest 500 million yuan (79.4 billion U.S. dollars) over three years to boost a cash-on-delivery service to e-commerce merchants and courier firms which will enjoy lower costs. The firm eyes 60,000 POS terminals in three years.

Today’s statement has brought an end to the firm’s POS strategy. The company did not elaborate reasons for the adjustment. But watchers have a good reason to associate with UnionPay.

At a forum gathering 52 third-party payment agencies in agreement with UnionPay in mid-August, the state-backed banking card industry association said no transactions between legal persons could bypass UnionPay.

Liu Shiyu, a vice central bank governor, warned on the same day that Internet financing companies should find their space to the extent that the law permits, otherwise such business could involve into “”illegal soliciting deposits from the public” and “illegal fund-raising.”

 

Filed under Macro Trends, TMT Trends

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