Alipay, the mobile payment platform under Ant Group that introduced the cashless society to China with its QR code, is building on that leadership by amassing 100 million users for its tap-and-pay service in the first year of its launch.
The Hangzhou-based fintech company’s NFC-enabled “Tap!” payment service has signed up 100 million users since introducing its tap-and-pay service on June 7, 2024, cementing its role as China’s leading payment service provider, Ant Group said in a statement on Thursday.
On top of its QR code and facial recognition function to facilitate payments, Alipay in June 2024 introduced the tap-and-pay function in China, allowing consumers to settle by tapping their smartphones on merchant terminals or payment tags. While the technology is similar to Visa and Apple Pay, Alipay’s popularity in China has quickly proliferated as a new way of payment in the country of more than one billion internet users.
According to Ant Group, the service is available in more than 400 mainland Chinese cities and supports over 5,000 shopping brands, including Burger King and convenience store chain FamilyMart.
