Rumor: Alibaba to Integrate Alipay with Ding Ding Coupon
Techweb, 12/28/12
According to a source within the company, Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group has made offline-online integration an internal priority, and in addition to recently reshuffling personnel along those lines, Alibaba Group has not ruled out integrating its Alipay third-party payment provider with strategic offline acquisitions, the latter possibly referring to Alibaba's investment in Chinese local listings search engine Ding Ding Map last month.
According to the source, Ding Ding has had a team based within Alipay's headquarters for over a month, and the two companies plan to integrate the Ding Ding Coupon LBS discount service with Alipay next year.
Alipay is currently conducting small-scale open beta testing of a new mobile client, "Kabao," one of the key features of which allows users to quickly manage and use coupons and bank cards. If all goes according to plan, the app will integrate certain Ding Ding Coupon functionality.
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "Ding Ding Map Obtains New Funding From Alibaba, Citi Bank" MD 11/01/12 issue.
Keywords: Internet Alipay Ding Ding Map LBS third-party payment Alibaba Group Kabao Ding Ding Coupon
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