Suntec City and Alipay have inked a two-year partnership to launch Alipay payment terminals or touchpoints to attract more visitors from China to one of Singapore's largest shopping malls.
Under the partnership, some 350 shops in Suntec City will progressively roll out Alipay as a payment option for Chinese tourists. By next July, the partners plan to cover 60 per cent of the stores with Alipay touchpoints, they said in a joint announcement yesterday.
Alipay, the world's largest mobile and online payments platform, is operated by Ant Financial Services Group. Last week, China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding, said it would buy a 33 per cent stake in Ant Financial, an affiliate controlled by Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
Payment through Alipay can be made simply by scanning a QR code, a method widely adopted in China.
According to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the Republic received 15.9 million international visitors in the first 11 months of last year, during which the number of visitors from China reached nearly three million, a 13.1 per cent increase from a year ago. China also contributed the largest share of tourism receipts.
STB signed an agreement with Alipay last September to cross-share relevant content about Singapore on Alipay's platforms and STB's Tourism Information and Services Hub, a business-to-business platform which allows businesses to contribute and access up-to-date information and travel services.
This is aimed at increasing exposure of Singapore's offerings from various tourism businesses and providing Chinese tourists with better information access before and during their trips to Singapore.
They also agreed to explore co-investments in joint-marketing initiatives to market Singapore and Alipay merchants with the objective of increasing spending via Alipay platforms.
Alipay, which first became a payment option in Singapore in 2015, is accepted by more than 2,000 merchants here, including Universal Studios Singapore, the Singapore Zoo, department stores under Metro and Robinsons and several hawker centres, STB said on its website.
