Alibaba Group to invest $732 million to upgrade Alipay
12 Apr 2010
Alibaba Group will invest $732 million in China's leading online payment service company Alipay, over the next five years to upgrade its payment solution for e-commerce in China and globally.
Alibaba Group, parent of Alibaba.com is about 40 percent owned by Yahoo.
Alipay is China's largest online payment network by both number of users and total transaction volume. It enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. Alipay works like an escrow service, solving the issue of settlement risk in China.
Launched in 2003, Alipay, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group, has more than 300 million registered users as of March 2010, had a daily transaction volume exceeding $176 million in 5 million transactions.
"Online payment will continue to play an ever-growing and significant role in the development of e-commerce as well as the stimulation of consumer demand," said Lucy Peng, CEO of Alipay & CPO of Alibaba Group in a statement today.
"Consumers expect a safe, convenient and affordable globalised payment platform," she added.