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Comment by eunos | Hacker News Reader

From what I read and watched about Alipay, seems very convenient.

Too bad it won't be available to non-Chinese users anytime soon.

I use it in Hong Kong, it's very convenient to pay utility bills with. Some merchants also accept it for online payments, and you can pay with it at convenient stores, although Octopus card is far easier there.

As an American ignorant of Alipay/WeChat, I don't understand why they are perceived to be more convenient/advanced than the credit card system here. I tap my phone/card to pay at the register, enter the card number once for utilities in a webpage, that pretty low friction.

For paying at stores, I also just use credit cars (Apple Pay), it’s indeed more convenient. For utilities, I open the app, check if I have a bill and click “pay”. It’s nice to be able to pay all utilities from one app, instead of having to log in to different sites and enter my details.

But I think one of the main things is also that you can connect it to your bank account, so it essentially becomes what a debit card is.

If you pay on AliExpress today you are using AliPay.

"using" only in the sense that your website visitors use Google Analytics.

No, you actually have to get an AliPay account if my memory serves me correctly. It's been a few years since i created the account.

But it's still processed via the visa/mastercard network. It's "alipay" in the same sense that the recent magnetic accessories for the iPhone 12 is "magsafe". Totally different things, same branding.

Closer analogy would be Paypal I think.

I think I’ve seen someone pay with AliPay using their face... pretty far ahead of what we have...

>pretty far ahead of what we have...

call me a luddite but that's one innovation that I can do without.

Agreed - but if you live in China, the government already has your face mapped and is tracking you wherever you go... so maybe it is a zero additional cost for their citizens to give their face away to another application.

I was in an airport in China. A screen said "Walk up to the camera and we'll tell you which way to your gate.". I did so, the screen highlighted my face on the camera feed, showed me my name and my gate. Geezus Christ, they don't hide the fact that they're tracking faces...

When you first enter China, you have to let a machine scan your face (IIRC fingerprints too?), and locals have to scan their (RFID-enabled) IDs to enter airports or train stations; so they seem to really have total control.

London Heathrow has face-tracking gates. Entering the US has required fingerprints for many years, at least for me.

I can't imagine how an international traveller could in good faith single out China as having "total control" on these grounds in a way that is qualitatively different from Western countries.

U.S. airports do this too, but you can opt-out.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2019/08/1...

Some flights from Europe to US do this at the gate -- there's no opt-out. I remember flying AA from AMS and everybody had to get scanned before boarding (CBP agents were present).

I hear this and feel fear. "It's 1984 come to life", I shout. I suspect in China they look at this advance proudly and say "What a Brave New World!"

here we have "Clear"

https://www.clearme.com

The difference is that Clear is a paid, private service, not a government requirement.

How is a face authorization? Can I just point my phone at you and take your money?

Don't know if it's nationwide, but at CVSs in Boston you can now use alipay.

AliPay can be used at the German drug store chain "DM" as well.

You can use Alipay Tour Pass in China

I'm not Chinese and I use Alipay all the time :)

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