Alipay has set its sights on China's public transport networks, vowing to bring its QR code-based mobile payments to around 50 new cities over the next year.
The hugely popular service is already a payment option for bus and subway users in over 50 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.
The Ant Financial unit says that its proprietary technology, which processes QR code-based payments within 0.3 seconds without the need for Internet connectivity on either the mobile phone or the QR scanner, is ideally suited for public transport.
And with Chinese people taking an average of 300 million public transport trips every day, the company is keen to delve deeper into a massive market, expanding to more than 100 cities - both major urban centres and smaller places - within the next year.
Meanwhile, Google's mobile payments service has now hit 100 million downloads on the Play Store. Unlike Alipay, Google has had a tough time winning consumers over to its mobile payments service, rebranding under the Google Pay banner earlier this year in an effort to build momentum.