China’s e-commerce giant hives off reward points service
December 20th, 2011 - 5:16 pm ICT by IANSBeijing, Dec 20 (IANS) Alipay, China’s leading third-party online payment platform and a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group, has spinned off its reward points service as a wholly-owned subsidiary to tap the country’s booming e-commerce market.
Jifen Bao, the relaunched reward points platform, will be based in the eastern city of Nanjing, Jiangsu province, with an initial capital of 10 million yuan ($1.57 million), reported Xinhua.
The service enables clients to redeem points to make small purchases on Alibaba’s e-commerce subsidiaries, such as Taobao, and to pay utility bills, company officials said Tuesday.
Alipay Vice CEO Jing Xiandong said opportunities have matured for Alipay to remake the reward points service, first launched in 2002, into an independent company.
Alipay is China’s leading third-party online payment platform and accounts for an estimated 49.56 percent of the market with nearly 600 million registered users.
E-commerce grew robustly in China in the past few years. Trading volume of China’s online retail market stood at 212 billion yuan in the third quarter this year, up 58 percent compared with the same period last year.
- E-commerce to make even bigger gains - Mar 28, 2012
- Alibaba opens global online trade forum - Apr 27, 2010
- Can't say 'it's over'? Tell break-up agent - Sep 03, 2011
- China shuts down 829 websites, online stores selling fakes - Jul 15, 2011
- Chinese making fortunes out of 'e-business' trend - Sep 25, 2010
- Chinese youth hire dates to please parents - Jan 28, 2012
- Chinese youths hire dates to please parents (Lead) - Jan 28, 2012
- EBS wins most valuable e-commerce company award - Apr 10, 2012
- RBI permits PayPal exporters $3,000 per transaction - Oct 15, 2011
- Costly China-made liquor pushes Chinese to foreign markets - Feb 20, 2011
- Alibaba.com may launch joint venture in India - Aug 04, 2009
- China's e-commerce volume surged to 2.25t Yuan in first half of 2010 - Aug 18, 2010
- PayPal set to become global payment platform - Jul 25, 2009
- Phishing websites pocket $3 billion in China - Jan 15, 2011
- China's e-commerce turnover up 22 percent in 2010 - Jan 19, 2011
Tags: 10 million, alipay, beijing, commerce market, company officials, hives, independent company, initial capital, jiangsu province, jifen, payment platform, retail market, reward points, subsidiaries, subsidiary, taobao, third party, utility bills, xinhua, yuan