Alipay gets new name in financial services push

E-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding has changed the name of its Alipay financial services affiliate to Ant Financial Services Group as it steps up its push into the financial services industry.

Alibaba has been aggressively offering new financial services around Alipay, including a money market fund for consumers, a mobile payment app and even a new private bank that was approved by Beijing in September.

Due to Alibaba's dominant market position in e-commerce, Alipay has emerged as the online payment processing leader on the mainland. It cleared 80 million transactions per day, including 45 million through its Alipay Wallet mobile app, the company said yesterday.

The rebranding of the Alipay unit, whose legal name is Zhejiang Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group, is part of a strategy by Alibaba and its affiliated firms to accelerate development of financial business. The name "Ant" was chosen to symbolise the potential strength of a number of smaller brands working together, executives said.

At a presentation in Beijing, Ant Financial executives outlined a vision of turning its mobile payment app into a full-fledged, data-driven commercial platform. They have their sights set on a service where businesses can deliver personally tailored smartphone ads and promotions based on Alipay data gleaned from an individual consumer's shopping habits.

"China has never been lacking banks; it has 200 of them," said Ant Financial chief executive Lucy Peng. "But we have an opportunity to use internet methods, internet technology, internet thinking to disrupt traditional finance."