Alibaba’s fintech arm Ant Financial revealed that a total of 442 Chinese city governments have moved some of their public services to Alipay, making the country’s leading mobile payments platform more relevant in everyday life, beyond just payments.
Alipay first started offering city-level residents services ten years ago.
Now they’re available in 442 cities, accounting for two-thirds of China’s 657 cities. Alipay has teamed up with the country’s authorities to offer a digital form of citizens’ social security cards, integrating key information such as one’s pension fund, public medical insurance, and home accumulation fund into the Alipay mobile platform.
Some cities offer additional specialised services through the app, such as booking appointments for marriage or divorce procedures, or for visa applications. These services once were only available on local governments’ websites.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad