Alipay, China’s leading mobile payment provider and pioneer in QR mobile payments, has launched a new service that supports NFC contactless payments, marking the first time the technology has been embraced by a major player in the world’s largest mobile payments market.

Alipay Tap! is designed to “speed up mobile payments in stores,” the South China Morning Post reports.

However, it is “different from the NFC payment methods of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay, which work through a so-called card emulation mode.

“Alipay’s tap-and-pay service turns a smartphone into an NFC tag reader, replacing a few steps in a typical QR code-based payment scanning process with a simple tap.

“Alipay’s Tap! service is currently available to more than 2,300 brands and merchants in major cities in the mainland, including Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan and Hangzhou.

“According to Chinese media reports on Tuesday, supermarket chain 7-Eleven and stores in Jing’an Joy City, a major shopping mall in Shanghai, are among those using the service,” the newspaper said.

“The USB add-ons for Alipay’s Tap! that merchants use can also support traditional scanning and payment services, including WeChat Pay, Meituan Pay and QuickPass, via a built-in camera.”

“Alipay Tap! simplifies in-store payments for iPhone and Android users,” the mobile payments giant explains in a video shared on X.

“Just tap your phone on the seller’s NFC tag and Alipay will take care of the rest. Fast and easy!”

“The merchant’s USB add-on acts as a QR scanner with an NFC tag. While it doesn’t support the ‘emulated card’ mode used by Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, it integrates easily with the merchant’s POS system and can work with other payment hardware.”

“Users need to enable NFC on their phone, keep the screen unlocked and simply tap their phone to the merchant’s USB add-on at the checkout to complete the transaction,” AsiaTechDaily adds. “This method shortens the transaction process by three steps compared to traditional QR code payments.”

“The smartphone acts as a reader to scan the merchant’s NFC tag and then activates the Alipay app to complete the transaction online. This mode mirrors the familiar process of QR code payments, but streamlines the first steps by replacing scanning with a simple tap.”

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