The service has been around for awhile now, but has been limited to China’s residents and internal transactions. This seems to be like a twist of the knife in PayPal’s back, especially since the company was forced to operate two companies – one specifically handling internal transactions within China, and another to handle international payments.
Alipay is now seeking to expand and cross-borders and have been reported to be in talks with international credit card companies. These talks are said to be about facilitating cross-border transactions, which ultimately would allow international buyers to purchase directly from Chinese online websites, as long as the site ships internationally and the user has both a credit card and an Alipay account. Anyone else excited at the prospect of being able to buy direct from China?