Alipay partners European e-wallets for a common QR code for mobile payments

Six mobile wallets in Europe, together with Alipay, will collaborate and adopt a unified QR code for mobile payments, allowing users of each wallet to pay for their purchases across 10 countries in the continent.

The six European mobile wallets include Austria’s Bluecode, Finland’s ePassi and Pivo, Oslo’s Vipps, Spain’s Momo, as well as Portugal’s Pagaqui. The wallets are working with the Chinese payment provider towards rolling out a QR code format provided by Alipay so that users of any wallet will be able to make mobile payments at merchants across Europe that already accept payments for the other wallets.

Photo credit: Ant Financial

Alipay users will also be able to pay at merchants that have already adopted the same QR code format.

The collaboration will bring together over 5 million users in Europe and over 190,000 merchants, according to a joint statement by the companies. EPassi and Bluecode will offer technical services to the participating wallets to simplify the integration process among them.

“We feel honored to help promote a smart lifestyle and digital experiences in Europe, while continuing to connect more merchants with more Chinese tourists,” said Eric Jing Xiandong, executive chairman and chief executive at Ant Financial Services, the operator of Alipay.

Ant Financial is an affiliate of New York-listed Alibaba Group Holding, the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

The collaboration between the different European mobile wallets will help provide a bigger market for these payments providers, since it will help connect “Europe’s thriving yet fragmented mobile payment landscape.”

Alipay and its rival, Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay, have in recent years made a concerted overseas push to capture a share of the lucrative growth in Chinese outbound tourism. Chinese tourists took 140 million trips overseas last year, according to China’s Ministry of Tourism.

Since its establishment, Ant Financial has amassed more than 1 billion annual active users together with its mobile wallet partners in Asia. It is currently valued at US$150 billion after raising about US$14 billion in the biggest-ever single fundraising round globally.

The two mobile payment platforms allow Chinese tourists to pay for their overseas shopping directly within the Alipay and WeChat apps, with purchases settled in yuan. Use of credit cards, by comparison, typically incurs foreign transaction fees.

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