Alipay expanding to Taiwan

Alipay, E-commerce behemoth, Alibaba’s third party payment solution has decided to expand its services into Taiwan by the first half of 2014.

The decision was announced by Alipay’s vice-president Fan Zhiming in a report by Alibaba made on the 17th of October 2013. "In the first half of next year, we are looking at a big push into Taiwan," Zhiming stated.

This move into the Taiwanese market comes as no surprise, as Alipay has been focusing on markets with large Chinese communities much like Singapore and Malaysia.

The Taiwanese regulations in regards to third-party payment providers are extremely strict. According to Zhiming, Alipay will work close in hand with the taiwanese government and regulatory departments to insure that everything is in place when the service is launched by the beginning of next year. Zhiming in addition stated that he feels optimistic about instilling the service in Taiwan and he believes that Alipay will overcome any regulatory obstacles the the Taiwanese government may impose.

Alipay is China’s preferred method of payment for online shoppers and transacts over 20 Billion yuan (3.28 Billion USD) daily, and over 25 Thousand mobile transaction with Alipay are placed every minute. Alipay has over 700 Million registered users, supports 14 major currencies, and is partners with over 100 different financial institutions, including Visa and MasterCard