Alibaba and Apple can start collaboration in the field of Mobile Payments

December 3, 2014 Blog
alibaba_apple-800x309 Chinese Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. and American Apple Corporation are willing to cooperate in the field of mobile payments, as announced by the head of Alibaba, Jack Ma, reports Reuters. “I hope we can do something together,” – he said, commenting on the possible merging of a payment system Alipay with a recently introduced American company Apple Pay. The possibility of cooperation was also mentioned in the speech of Apple CEO Tim Cook. “We would like to collaborate with people of flexible minds and committed teams, who could push us ahead and in their turn be willing to be pushed by us,” – quotes VB. On Monday, October 20, Apple launched in the USA its own payment system for mobile devices called Apple Pay. The system will be maintained and supported by about 500 banks, reports CNN. The company simultaneously presented updates for the operational system iOS 8.1. Smartphone owners will be able to pay for their purchases with the help of an inbuilt fingerprint scanning system by placing iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus next to a PayPass terminal. Apple has already signed contracts with several retailers including Bloomingdale's, Macy's, McDonald's, Staples and Whole Foods. Alibaba was founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, a former English language teacher. He launched a B2B sales website Alibaba.com together with his partners from his own apartment in Hangzhou. Trading platforms of Alibaba Group have a combined membership of 231 million active buyers, which accounts for almost one-fifth of China’s population and about 40% of local users. In 2013 the total volume of commercial transactions, made through Alibaba trading platforms amounted to $250 bln. – this is more than Amazon and eBay combined. img_1289-3