Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Financial Services Group yesterday said it will cooperate with 1 million overseas merchants in the next three years to provide better services for Chinese outbound travelers.

Alipay, the payment service operated by Ant Financial, will work with merchants in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States so that Chinese travelers need not shift to a new service to search for local deals and coupons. The merchants’ information will also be available for them in Chinese.

Sabrina Peng, president of Alipay’s International, said in a CNBC interview that the company’s “vision is targeting 2 billion people within the next five to 10 years, not only in China but other countries too.”

Alipay is also talking with a number of partners ranging from financial institutions to restaurants and theaters across Europe to allow them to access Alipay’s data analyzing capabilities to help in their marketing strategies aimed at Chinese travelers.

Alipay was used by 120 million users abroad last year. It has 450 million real-name verified users, and about 170 million transactions are processed every day.

(Source: ShanghaiDaily  Author: Ding Yining)