ACI WORLDWIDE, INC. NAPLES, FLA, June 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, and Alipay today announced that they are launching Alipay in South Africa, via leading regional payment service provider (PSP) Peach Payments. This latest news builds upon ACI’s long-standing work with Alipay, as well as Peach Payments, whose merchants already benefit from the flexibility and seamless mobile checkout delivered by ACI’s Mobile Commerce Software Development Kit (mSDK).
Alipay, operated by Ant Financial Services Group, is the world’s largest online and mobile payment platform with more than 450 million active Chinese users. Alipay allows merchants to effectively gain share in the world's largest eCommerce market through a payment method and lifestyle platform Chinese travellers know and trust.
City Sightseeing, which operates open-top ‘hop on hop off’ bus tours in Cape Town and Johannesburg, will be the first local merchant in Africa to offer Alipay as part of its mobile and eCommerce strategy, to capture the growing Chinese visitor market in South Africa.
China is the world’s largest outbound tourism market, with 135 million travelling abroad in 2016, representing a 6 percent growth on the previous year. Adventure-seeking Chinese tourists are increasingly looking to African destinations, and in South Africa alone there was a 93 percent rise in Chinese arrivals in 2016.
"Alipay has been providing its users across China with easier, safer and greener lifestyles. Bringing Alipay to Africa gives African merchants another way to engage with and serve Chinese visitors,” said Rita Liu, Head of Alipay EMEA. “We are happy to work with local partners to provide better travel experiences to Chinese tourists, and to create more value for local commerce.”
"We are proud to build upon our successful relationship with Peach Payments, enabling them to be the first PSP in South Africa to give their merchants the ability to accept Alipay,” said Markus Rinderer, senior vice president, ACI Worldwide. “Although Alipay has been supported through our eCommerce Payments solution for two years now, launching in Africa brings us to a new and exciting phase in our relationship, as we move closer to our vision of enabling universal connectivity across the payments ecosystem.”
Peach Payments benefits from its integration to ACI’s global network of more than 350 acquirers and alternative payment methods, with flexible payment infrastructure based on an open API. Mobile payment capabilities are delivered by the Mobile Commerce SDK, one of the cornerstones of ACI’s API toolkit.
About ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide, the Universal Payments (UP) company, powers electronic payments for more than 5,100 organizations around the world. More than 1,000 of the largest financial institutions and intermediaries, as well as thousands of global merchants, rely on ACI to execute $14 trillion each day in payments and securities. In addition, myriad organizations utilize our electronic bill presentment and payment services. Through our comprehensive suite of software solutions delivered on customers’ premises or through ACI’s private cloud, we provide real-time, immediate payments capabilities and enable the industry’s most complete omni-channel payments experience. To learn more about ACI, please visit www.aciworldwide.com. You can also find us on Twitter @ACI_Worldwide.
© Copyright ACI Worldwide, Inc. 2017.
ACI, ACI Worldwide, ACI Payment Systems, the ACI logo, ACI Universal Payments, UP, the UP logo, ReD, PAY.ON and all ACI product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of ACI Worldwide, Inc., or one of its subsidiaries, in the United States, other countries or both. Other parties’ trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.
Product roadmaps are for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into a contract or agreement. The development release and timing of future product releases remains at ACI’s sole discretion. ACI is providing the following information in accordance with ACI's standard product communication policies. Any resulting features, functionality, and enhancements or timing of release of such features, functionality, and enhancements are at the sole discretion of ACI and may be modified without notice. All product roadmap or other similar information does not represent a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making a purchasing decision.
About Alipay
Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world’s leading mobile and online payment platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently has over 450 million active users and over 400 financial institution partners globally. Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Over 8 million brick-and-mortar merchants now accept Alipay across China. Alipay’s in-store payment service is covering more than 120,000 retail stores across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 24 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 200 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently supports 19 currencies.
About Ant Financial
Ant Financial Services Group is focused on serving small and micro enterprises, as well as individuals. With the vision “bringing the world equal opportunities,” Ant Financial is dedicated to building an open ecosystem of Internet thinking and technology while working with other financial institutions to support the future financial needs of society as a whole. Businesses operated by Ant Financial Services Group include Alipay, Ant Fortune, Zhima Credit and MYbank. For more information on Ant Financial, please visit www.antgroup.com; or follow Ant on Twitter @AntFinancial.
Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/84bcb161-4e34-4e48-866e-8e2383d1a5a1
Dan Ring ACI Worldwide +1 (781) 370-3600 dan.ring@aciworldwide.com Xinyun Yang Alipay / Ant Financial +86 1381 6896 301 xinyun.yang@antfin.com
