Alipay to offer payment services in overseas airports

In some overseas airports, Chinese travelers will now be able to pay their bills via Apps on their smart phones instead of using foreign money, said payment platform Alipay.

In a news conference held earlier this week, Alipay said that it had struck deals with ten high-profile airports across the world in its "Airport of the Future" program in an effort to offer convenience to Alipay users.

The international airports are in Germany, Singapore, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Thailand as well as China's Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.

Nine of the airports will start accepting Alipay from the beginning of October, the start of "Golden Week" when most Chinese have a week-long national holiday. The Singaporean airport will start the business at the end of this year.

Travelers will not only be able to pay for their purchases using Alipay, but can also find local shopping and dining information about merchants partnered with Alipay.

Services such as indoor navigation, wi-fi connection, hotel reservation and flight reminders via the Alipay app will also be provided.

"Alipay is built into the daily lives of over 450 million users when they are in China, and we want to replicate the experience for them when they travel abroad," said Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President of Ant Financial, which owns Alipay. "Airports are travelers' first stop and by working with the world's most popular airports, we are providing our users with payment and location-based information to make their visits to a foreign city more comfortable."

Alipay said it would not stop at ten airports and hoped that its service would reach 30 airports in the future.

Alipay is one of the country's biggest online payment platforms. It has already expanded to several markets such as the United States, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom. Endi