ACI Worldwide Launches Alipay In South Africa

ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, announced the launch of Alipay in South Africa, via leading regional payment service provider Peach Payments.

Alipay is the world’s largest online and mobile payment platform, with more than 450 million active Chinese users. China is the world’s largest outbound tourism market, and adventure-seeking Chinese tourists are increasingly looking to African destinations – in South Africa alone there was a 93 percent rise in Chinese arrivals in 2016.

According to a press release, City Sightseeing, which operates open-top ‘hop on hop off’ bus tours in Cape Town and Johannesburg, will be the first local merchant in Africa to offer Alipay.

“Alipay has been providing its users across China with easier, safer and greener lifestyles. Bringing Alipay to Africa gives African merchants another way to engage with and serve Chinese visitors,” said Rita Liu, head of Alipay EMEA. “We are happy to work with local partners to provide better travel experiences to Chinese tourists and to create more value for local commerce.”

This move is another example of ACI’s long-standing work with Alipay, as well as Peach Payments, whose merchants already benefit from the flexibility and seamless mobile checkout delivered by ACI’s Mobile Commerce Software Development Kit (mSDK).

“We are proud to build upon our successful relationship with Peach Payments, enabling them to be the first PSP in South Africa to give their merchants the ability to accept Alipay,” said Markus Rinderer, senior vice president of ACI Worldwide. “Although Alipay has been supported through our eCommerce Payments solution for two years now, launching in Africa brings us to a new and exciting phase in our relationship, as we move closer to our vision of enabling universal connectivity across the payments ecosystem.”