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Alipay, China’s biggest payment platform, has launched a new mini-program which integrates online cab-hailing services from five overseas platforms, which include Southeast Asian ride-hailer Grab, across 10 countries and 33 cities today. The new mini-program allows Alipay users, mostly Chinese tourists, to use cab-hailing services in ten countries, including the UK, the United States, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines, to use Chinese currency as preferable payment through Alipay. With this new mini-program, Chinese tourists can use their Alipay accounts to access the cab-hailing aggegrator Splyt, a UK based mobility startup, without needing to download different apps and set up different accounts for different cab-hailing platforms. However, the ride-hailing apps currently available for Alipay users under the agreement with Splyt are limited to Grab, Israeli firm Gett, US Uber-challenger Lyft, Estonia’s Taxify, and Careem from the Middle East. Notably, big players like Uber, Ola, and Go-Jek are still absent from the Alipay-powered mini-program. |
