Alipay and UnionPay join forces on barcode payment

On September 14, a source told an NBD News reporter, Alibaba’s online payment platform Alipay inked an agreement with China’s UnionPay. The two will cooperate on card-less and barcode payments, with Alipay offering some payment clearing services through UnionPay. The news follows a similar development this past April, in which UnionPay announced a QR code payment partnership with WeChat Pay. According to Wang Pengbo of internet consultancy Analysys, Alipay’s partnership with a payment clearing organization was inevitable and also forms part of a nationwide trend.