Two factors are dominating corporate usage of consumer payment systems today: 1) provision of multiple-channel payment channels, and 2) the Chinese payment systems.

Omnichannel delivery

Adyen, the payments platform of choice for the world’s leading companies, have expanded their partnership with the world’s largest third-party mobile and online payment platform, Alipay, to enable retailers worldwide to easily accept non-cash payments from Chinese customers in store. Used by more than 520 million people, the Alipay partnership comes at a pivotal time ahead of the Golden Week retail rush.

The partnership enables retailers using Adyen’s point of sale solution to take payments in store from Chinese consumers paying with their Alipay-enabled mobile device. The Adyen-Alipay solution is completely integrated into the current in store solution Adyen retailers use, so there’s no need for additional terminals or devices. The Alipay payment option is simply added as a new option to the existing payment terminal.

Adyen’s excellence and speed of global development are extending their lead in the omni-channel payment space.

Chinese payment systems are having to go global

Alipay is going global in many different ways, it is not just partnering with Adyen - see above - but also partnering with local banks, e.g. The recent partnerships with banks in Austria and Switzerland.

UnionPay -  - , the other huge Chinese payment system, is a payment card scheme, which provides both credit and debit cards, and is already the world largest card scheme:

Source & Copyright©2017 - Global Payment Cards Data and Forecasts to 2022 (RBR)

However, it is primarily a domestic card scheme, with less than 1% of UnionPay cards being issued outside China. External issuing is mainly in other Asia-Pacific countries, and also in Europe. It is ramping up its efforts to expand to new markets with the adoption of its chip standards in six Asia-Pacific countries.

Currently Visa and MasterCard are not allowed to operate domestically, but the Chinese regulators are considering how to allow VISA and MasterCard to operate locally. Apparently it will be allowed ‘soon’, so UnionPay are having to extend their issuing in other countries to protect their dominance.

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CTMfile take: Is your company, your group using omnichannel payment systems and the Chinese payment systems to generate new business? If not, why not?