A driver uses his smartphone to pay the highway toll by way of Alipay in Hangzhou, China on September 21, 2016. (Photo credit STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Ten years ago, eBay lost the battle to conquer China’s e-commerce market to small upstart Alibaba. Ten years on, China’s e-commerce market has grown more than tenfold, and Alibaba has become a global conglomerate with its arms stretching across multiple disciplines such as payments, big data, Hollywood and more.
The game of e-commerce has also changed. With proliferating smartphones, e-commerce has become increasingly mobile. Euromonitor estimates that mobile commerce will amount to $972 billion by the end of this year. By 2021, mobile payments are expected to reach $3 trillion.
This is an area where American companies are falling behind. Continue reading Alipay Takes on Apple Pay and PayPal on Their Home Turf