Alipay is part of Chinese life

They topped the day off with bowls of Japanese ramen noodles, also purchased with a scan of an Alipay code.

Shanghai: The most essential item in aircraft engineer Tao Rui’s possession during a recent outing in Shanghai was the Alipay smartphone app from Ant Group, a company little known outside China until it unfurled plans for the biggest IPO in history.

As Tao and a friend strolled the city at the weekend, he used Alipay to buy a cup of milk tea, a deep-fried octopus snack and a box of candy. He also used it to play a basketball game at an arcade, make a small donation to a street musician, and produce a health code signalling he was coronavirus-free before entering a Buddhist temple.

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They topped the day off with bowls of Japanese ramen noodles, also purchased with a scan of an Alipay code.Like hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers, the 22-year-old admits he simply cannot survive without Alipay, the crown jewel of the Alibaba empire.

“I use Alipay to order a cab, to buy things, to shop on (Alibaba e-commerce platform) Taobao, to buy clothes, and air and train tickets,” said Tao.

At restaurants, grocery stores and cafes, at subway turnstiles, train stations and airports, and when buying fruits and vegetables from a street side peddler, purchases across China are routinely made by consumers old and young with a quick QR code scan.

Even the occasional beggar is on board, sprawled on a sidewalk next to a neatly laminated printout of a QR code.Tao said that in China’s paper-money olden days, his family would have to hail a cab to get to a distant government office just to pay the household water and electricity bills — in cash.

“Now, we pay all our utility bills through Alipay, which directly deducts the amount online,” he said.”We don’t have to go out at all. You can do it from home.”