Chinese tourists can now use Alipay in 10,000 merchants across South Africa

Chinese tourists can now use Alipay to pay at Zapper merchants in South Africa
Chinese tourists can now use Alipay to pay at Zapper merchants in South Africa

Starting today, Chinese tourists in South Africa will have more opportunities to pay via smartphone as Alipay, the world’s largest online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group (“Ant Financial”, “Ant”), partners with Zapper, the fast-growing mobile payment, customer insights and digital marketing platform developed in South Africa.

This partnership will allow them to use their Alipay app to pay at 10,000 Zapper-affiliated merchants across the country. Chinese tourists will be able to search for restaurants, bars, theatres, book shops, adventure parks and more through Alipay’s in-app Discovery platform, and pay for their orders in RMB via Alipay by scanning a Zapper QR code.

“South Africa is a must-experience country for Chinese tourists visiting Africa. We are excited to partner with Zapper, the largest mobile payment provider in South Africa, to offer Chinese tourists a safe and convenient payment solution and seamless travel experience,” said Rita Liu, Head of Alipay EMEA.

“This cross-continental alliance is in line with the series of expansions into new verticals that Zapper is currently undertaking to diversify its service range, and further strengthen its position as South Africa’s mobile payment and loyalty rewards app of choice. These verticals include hospitality, retail, bills, e-commerce, donations, parking, fuel and convenience,” said Will Heygate, General Manager of Zapper South Africa.

This development arrives on the heels of the online payment service for hop-on-hop-off bus ticketing in Cape Town and Johannesburg that Alipay launched in June this year.

With Alipay’s more than 520 million Chinese users and Zapper’s rapidly burgeoning presence within the global payment landscape, each brand is now also better positioned to strengthen their appeal to the Asian and African customer respectively.

According to statistics by the South African Department of Tourism, over 110,000 Chinese tourists visited South Africa in the fiscal year of 2016, with a year-on-year growth of 38%. Tourism in South Africa has continuously grown for 7 years and weights 9% of the country’s GDP.

The South African government has recognized the tourism sector’s potential to generate economic growth and employment creation. Through the Department of Tourism’s strategic plan – National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS), the tourism sector is committed to creating a total of 225,000 additional jobs by the year 2020.

About Alipay

Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world’s largest mobile and online payment platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently has over 520 million active users and over 450 financial institution partners globally. Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Over 10 million brick-and-mortar merchants now accept Alipay across China. Alipay’s in-store payment service is covering more than 30 countries across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 24 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently supports 19 currencies.

About Zapper

Zapper is a South African mobile payment and loyalty rewards application that allows users to make fast, easy and secure payments in a matter of seconds with their smartphone.

Through the power of QR code technology Zapper provides seamless all-in-one mobile payments, vouchering and loyalty services to a variety of businesses and brands from across the retail, hospitality, retail, bills, fuel and convenience and ecommerce sectors.

The Zapper application has been downloaded more than one million times since entering the marketplace. With more than 300 employees supporting its expansion, Zapper’s reach extends beyond South African borders, including the UK, USA and Europe; allowing for successful transacting across all major currencies.

By using Zapper, businesses have access to empirically-rich data to better understand customer habits and encourage brand loyalty through targeted digital strategies that increase revenue and market share.