Digital payments outfit Stripe is introducing global support for Alipay and WeChat Pay, connecting business customers to the hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers that actively use these payment methods.
The integration with WeChat and Alipay coincides with Stripe's entry to Hong Kong, offering local companies access the to full Stripe stack and support for Hong Kong users to get paid out in USD without currency conversion to local, USD-denominated bank accounts.
Stripe's arrival in Hong Kong follows last month's launch into six new European markets, bringing its total coverage to 25 countries worldwide.
Adding support for WeChat and Alipay will provide Stripe merchants with the ability to tap into the vast Chinese consumer market. Between them, AliPay and WeChat dominate the mobile wallet ecosystem in China, with 92% market share between them, rolling over a combined $3 trillion in payments in 2016.
Both Alipay and WeChat Pay can be implemented with Sources, Stripe’s unified API for accepting any payment method with just a few lines of code. Additionally, the firm has partnered with Alipay to support recurring payments for Stripe users, easing the experience for SaaS and subscriptions-based businesses on the platform.