Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is interested in teaming up with Apple on mobile payments, according to comments from Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Speaking at at the WSJDLive tech conference in Laguna Beach, California, Ma agreed that it made sense for his company’s Alipay Wallet mobile system to partner with Apple Pay. “I hope we can do something together,” said Ma, adding that it should be a “marriage” that both sides want. Cook subsequently confirmed he would like to work with Alibaba and that he would be meeting with Ma later this week to discuss potential partnerships. “We’re going to talk about getting married later this week,” he said.
Since raising USD 25 billion in an IPO in September, Alibaba shares have risen 44 percent and the company has a market capitalisation of more than USD 240 billion, making it larger than Amazon and eBay combined. According to comments made by Ma at the WSJDLive conference, Alibaba’s payment service, Alipay, currently has over 300 million active users and even allows users to pay for hospital fees and rent cars.
