(12 July 2017 – Global) Payments startup Stripe has partnered with Chinese digital payment providers Alipay and WeChat Pay to enable merchants using its platform globally to accept payments from hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers.
The partnerships will allow online merchants using Stripe to integrate the ability for Chinese users to pay with Alipay and WeChat Pay on their websites, the company said in a statement.
Stripe hopes the integration will help boost its revenues by allowing clients to tap China's vast consumer market, where credit cards account for only a fraction of online spending, the company said.
“If you are an internet business this unlocks a new vast customer base,” John Collison, Stripe's president and co-founder, said in an interview. In turn, Chinese consumers will have expanded choice as to which international online merchants they can purchase products and services from, he added.
The partnership coincides with the Stripe’s launch in Hong Kong.
Stripe has previously partnered with Alipay to enable only the US merchants on its platform to integrate the Chinese payment service. The new global partnership builds on that experience.
“Demand for services from Chinese consumers is at all-time high,” said Souheil Badran, president of Alipay for North America. The new partnerships will connect them to hundreds of thousands of Stripe-powered businesses around the world, he added.