Alibaba-owned Alipay has expanded the number of stores and restaurants that accept the mobile payment app tenfold in the space of three months, bringing the total to 2,000, according to a report published by South China Morning Post.
“We follow Chinese consumers’ footprints in Europe. All the key merchants are the ones we want to work with,” Rita Liu, Head of Alipay Europe, told the South China Morning Post.
Alipay is also planning to roll out its real-time tax refund service to 12 European airports as well as extending its inflight shopping service, currently in operation on Finnair flights between Helsinki and Shanghai, to flights between Helsinki and Beijing this month.