Paying in China

It's a joy to be back in Beijing where you can cut the air with a knife and post to the blog but not read it. Not to mention traffic being stopped for 20 minutes on the Airport Expressway to allow a departing dignitary a misleading view of Beijing traffic.

Seeking Alpha carries a Chinese Tech Stock Weekly Summary which is always worth a browse. To pieces got clipped into my Google Notebook today and both refer to online payment systems.

Firstly, Paypal in China:

PayPal disclosed that it is cooperating with China International Travel Service [CITS] to offer a new payment service on CITS' web site. Under the partnership, CITS clients are expected to have ease in payment by using their personal PayPal accounts, a debit card, a bank account or a credit card. PayPal currently provides payment services in 17 kinds of currencies in 190 countries and regions across the world.

And, then, Alipay in Taiwan:

Alipay, the largest electronic payment service in China, announced its decision to enter the Taiwan market through its partnership with Taiwan-based eDynamics. It is part of Alipay’s effort to help users in China to be able to do online shopping in Taiwan. Alipay is a member of the Alibaba Group in China. eDynamics provides e-commerce and online marketing services specifically for small enterprises and individuals in Taiwan.

Not too much connection here other than a continued focus and interest in online payment systems and the way in which that will open up both B2C and (possibly) B2B transactions online. According to a Sinocast piece, "Statistics show that Alipay.com has seized a more than 50% share of China's online payment market with a total of 52 million members". Mind you, it doesn't say whose statistics.

By the way, this looks like a big win for eDynamics (can't find a web site for them) which, according to Hoovers, has sales of just $6.5 million.