Alibaba’s Alipay payments platform is slowly making its way around the globe.
Countries such as Japan have seen stores which accept Alipay transactions doubling in major cities, and Alibaba is looking to bring its terminals to smaller towns as well.
In New Zealand, Alipay celebrated having NZ$1 million worth of transactions on Monday at Auckland Airport since introducing their payment terminals there a year ago.
Alipay In Singapore Now A Reality
In Singapore though, Alipay has actually been available at Changi Airport since September 2016.
It was introduced to offer tourists from China an alternative payment method that they were more familiar with. With it, they can not only pay for goods within Changi Airport, but they can also purchase a NETS Flashpay card for use during their stay in Singapore.
Today, Singaporeans can also join in on the Alipay experience (sort of).
helloPay, Lazada’s online payments platform, has announced that with immediate effect, it has rebranded itself into Alipay Singapore.
While it may be Alipay Singapore in name, it’s not exactly a part of the global Alipay ecosystem… yet.
The move also sees other markets that Lazada’s helloPay is in, rebranding themselves into Alipay for that specific country, mainly Alipay Malaysia, Alipay Indonesia, and Alipay Philippines.
As part of the rebranding, staff from helloPay will now be a part of Jack Ma’s Ant Financial, a financial affiliate of Alibaba.
What It Means For Consumers
For everyone else though, if you are an existing helloPay user, know that you won’t have to do anything due to the change. Alipay Singapore will still function as an alternative payment method on Lazada.
One important thing to note is that Alipay Singapore is independent of Alipay.
So unfortunately for Singaporeans, you can’t exactly use your shiny new Alipay Singapore account at Alipay terminals in airports and stores worldwide that have it.
For now, the use for Alipay Singapore is still limited to purchases within Lazada as it essentially is helloPay.
That’s not to say you’re locked out from trying out Alipay. Their app is available on both the iOS App Store and Android Play Store, but do note that you may not have full access to the features.
This move comes as no surprise, especially since Alibaba holds a controlling stake in Lazada, which just so happened nearly a year ago.