Christmas tills could be ringing with Alipay transactions in Wellington

Monday, 4 December 2017

Chinese mobile payment app Alipay may be accepted by Wellington retailers as soon as Christmas.

At the New Zealand China Business Forum held at Te Papa on Sunday, both Wellington mayor Justin Lester and an Alibaba representative told RNZ there was interest in bringing the mobile and online payment platform to the capital.

The founder and executive chairman of Alibaba, Jack Ma, is one of the richest people in the world.

Alibaba's app is used widely across China, with over 500 million Chinese users.

Alibaba managing director for Australia and New Zealand Maggie Zhou said she wanted to provide the mobile payment service to Chinese people travelling in New Zealand.

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In China, apps like Alipay and WeChat have widely replaced cash transactions. Mobile wallets are used to pay for meals, movies, shopping, utilities. Even street vendors accept mobile payments, Zhou said.

New Zealand's first mobile wallet app, Semble, was shelved last year following low uptake from consumers and low volumes of retail terminals accepting the payment.

Semble was a joint-project between Paymark and telecommunications companies Vodafone, 2degrees, and Spark.

Banks ASB, Westpac and ANZ have since launched their own payment apps.