Alipay joins livestreaming ecommerce trend with mini program

Have you ever wished it was easier to jump into a livestreaming video after paying for your Starbucks latte? Alipay is now making your wish come true. Like many apps in the country, the mobile payment platform has decided to cash in on China’s popular and lucrative livestreaming ecommerce trend.

(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, an affiliate of Alipay owner Ant Financial.)

Photo credit: Ant Financial

On Thursday, Alipay added a mini program inside the app that lets users tune in to livestreamed channels on Taobao, Alibaba’s main ecommerce site. Here, you can see sellers offering everything from homegrown vegetables to gaudy jewelry, with an option to directly purchase the goods from within Alipay.

The new feature comes after Taobao Live saw rapid growth during the coronavirus pandemic. Similar to Tencent’s WeChat, the social app with a competing mobile payments service, Alipay’s platform allows you to search for and open mini programs within the main app. But WeChat is also looking to take advantage of the rising popularity of livestreaming, having introduced its own livestreaming mini program last year.

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