Alipay inks deal for acceptance at 4mn US merchants

Alipay, owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Financial, reached a deal that will let its users shop at 4 million US merchants served by payments processor First Data Corp, the companies said Monday in a joint statement. The rollout will begin with businesses that use First Data’s Clover products. Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay dominate the mobile-payments market in China with a combined 90% share. Alipay now wants to leverage the millions of Chinese customers who travel abroad by offering them services wherever they go. The firm’s mobile wallet – which can hold cards from American Express, Visa and Mastercard – is already accepted by more than 100,000 retailers in 70 international markets, the company said. The First Data deal will put Alipay in the same league as Apple Pay in terms of acceptance, Bloomberg reports. Apple’s mobile payments service can be used at 4.5 million locations in the US.