WeChat and Alipay expand their spending power

Two of China’s biggest digital payment

services are partnered with US-based Stripe Inc., to increase online

shopping options for Chinese customers.

Businesses

that use Stripe can now accept Alipay and WeChat as payment methods on

their websites, according to astatementfrom Stripe released on

Monday.

Stripe provides software that lets businesses accept online payments.

“By

deepening our existing partnership with Alipay, we’re enabling

businesses around the world to instantly access the once-impenetrable

Chinese consumer market,” said John Collison, president and co-founder

of Stripe.

Alipay, part of Ant Financial, anAlibaba

Group Holding Inc. affiliate, andTencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat Pay,

dominate the mobile-payments market in China with a combined 90% share.

They

are estimated to have processed close to $3 trillion cumulatively in

2016, according to a UN report, which put Alipay slightly ahead of $1.7

trillion compared to $1.2 trillion for WeChat Pay.

Alipay

is used by about half a billion Chinese shoppers. Its mobile wallet is

already accepted by more than 100,000 retailers in 70 international

markets.

The partnership with Stripe will

aidAlibaba’s efforts to attract more US businesses and feed the Chinese

consumer’s increasing appetite for foreign goods.