South African startup Peach Payments has partnered global electronic payment and banking solutions provider ACI Worldwide and payments platform Alipay to launch Alipay in South Africa.
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. It allows merchants to enter the e-commerce market.
ACI has worked for a long time with both Alipay and Peach Payments, and has now facilitated the launch of the former in South Africa via the Peach Payments platform. 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 in order to capture the growing Chinese tourism market in South Africa.
“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.”
Markus Rinderer, senior vice president of ACI Worldwide, said his company was proud to build upon its successful relationship with Peach Payments, enabling them to be the first PSP in South Africa to give their merchants the ability to accept Alipay.
“Although Alipay has been supported through our e-commerce 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,” he said.
