Jack Ma’s Alipay expands to Hong Kong

Alipay app shown after being used to pay for coffee.

Alibaba spin-off Alipay, the top mobile payments app in China with over 450 million active users, has expanded to Hong Kong. It’s Alipay’s first launch outside mainland China.

Starting today, people in Hong Kong can use Alipay for shopping with the local currency, the Hong Kong dollar, reports the Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post newspaper.

The next target: Apple Pay.

For the moment, this launch only extends to Hong Kongers shopping on Alibaba’s online marketplaces, Tmall and Taobao.

“We hope that HK users can pay with HKD via Alipay in offline stores in HK soon,” explains a representative of Alipay parent company Ant Financial to Tech in Asia. That will put Alipay up against Apple Pay and Samsung Pay – and also against Hong Kong’s ubiquitous Octopus card.

Both Jack Ma and his Alibaba company have minority stakes in Ant Financial, the spin-off company that runs Alipay. Photo modified by Tech in Asia; original photo credit: UN Climate Change.

You might have seen the Alipay logo the last time you were flying out of Thailand or Japan. The app is spreading to airports and department stores overseas that are hot destinations for China’s globe-trotting tourists, allowing them to buy things cashlessly in Chinese yuan.

With Southeast Asia’s top ecommerce store, Lazada, now owned by Alibaba, it’s possible that Alipay’s next overseas steps will be to serve Lazada’s shoppers.