Chinese online commerce giant Alibaba open to working with PayPal: report

Employees of Tmall, which sells underwear on Alibaba, work online to serve customers and deal with orders overnight in Hangzhou, China. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Employees of Tmall, which sells underwear on Alibaba, work online to serve customers and deal with orders overnight in Hangzhou, China. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alibaba Group is open to working with eBay's PayPal to expand its payment options, Bloomberg reported, citing an interview with the Chinese e-commerce company's vice chairman.

"If you look at our footprint of being the largest online payment company in China, and PayPal's position of having a very good international position, not just in the U.S. but also in some other countries, these are some complementary footprints," Joseph Tsai said Monday in Hangzhou, China.

Alibaba saw US$9.3 billion (S$12.02 billion) in sales on China's Singles' Day on Tuesday, blowing past the previous record of US$5.75 billion set in 2013. The manufactured holiday is now the biggest online shopping day in the world.

The company also sees Apple's payment system as helping Chinese consumers when Alibaba's financial services arm, Alipay, is not accepted, Tsai said.

In September eBay said it would spin off PayPal into a publicly traded company in the second half of 2015.

Alibaba and eBay could not immediately be reached for comment.

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