Alipay to further connect with public transportation providers
Ant Financial said it aims to connect with public transportation service providers in as many as 100 domestic cities by the end of this year.
It will also integrate Alibaba’s cloud computing, online mapping and data capacity to push forward the adoption of smart traffic solutions.
Currently it already connects with public transportation systems in about 50 domestic cities, including Metro line operators in four.
Liu Xiaojie, general manager of Ant Financial’s urban service business unit, said it will seek to integrate collaborators’ resources to provide more value-added services such as traffic route planning.
In Shanghai, Alipay users can connect with the “Metro Daduhui” application to pay for metro fares. Ant Financial’s collaboration with Shentong Metro Group also includes providing facial and voice recognition, as well as passenger volume analyzing capabilities to aid metro line operators.
Shanghai Shentong Metro Group said nearly 5 million passengers downloaded the application as of March, about three months since its launch.
