Apple China will accept Alipay in its stores – the first third-party mobile payment system to be accepted at any Apple store worldwide.
This follows lukewarm reception in China for Apple’s own payment system, says Reuters.
The IT giant will accept Alipay payments across its 41 brick-and-mortar retail stores in China, says Ant Financial, which runs the system for Alibaba.
Meanwhile, Apple China’s website, iTunes store and App Store have been accepting Alipay for more than a year.
Apple is shifting user data to China-based servers this month to meet local rules, and last year removed dozens of local and foreign VPN apps from its Chinese app store.
China’s official Xinhua news agency says Apple will build its second data centre in China, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, after setting up a data centre in Guizhou.