TOKYO, 6 September 2018: Alipay, an online payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group announced, Wednesday, a decision to work with more Japanese partners to build a cashless environment for Chinese tourists, ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
The project will target Chinese tourists visiting Japan to introduce an easy payment channel that is familiar to Chinese travellers.
It will also provide business opportunities for local merchants in Japan.
In the long-run Alipay will extend cover throughout Japan starting with the most popular tourist destinations for travellers from China and other Asian countries.
“The Tokyo Olympics and the hike in visitors that this will bring is a good target for us, to ensure that the Alipay platform is the bridge between inbound visitors and local merchants here in Japan,” said Ant Financial executive chairman and CEO, Eric Jing.
The number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan continues to increase year-over-year. Close to 7.35 million tourists visited Japan in 2017 with a y-o-y growth rate of 15.4% and the revenue earned from this group reached 1.6 trillion yen (USD14.3 billion). This trend is likely to continue and the Olympic Games in 2020 are expected to be a peak with visitors attracted to the international sporting spectacle as well as the country’s famous locations.
According to Alipay’s statistics, Chinese visitors’ spending through mobile payments from July to the end of August reached 3,900 yuan (USD569).
This average spend represented an increase of 52% compared with the previous year and the total transaction volume grew by 165%.
To further expand its merchant network, Alipay is also seeking to work with more small and micro merchants by cooperating with local mobile payment platforms in Japan such as Line Pay and Paypay.
Alipay, which currently has over 700 million active users in China, was introduced to Japan in December 2015 and is currently available in all 47 prefectures across the country.
(Source: Businesswire)
