McDonald’s China to accept Alipay

Alibaba’s AliPay has received a major boost in its quest to become a generally accepted payment system in the mainland.

McDonald’s China has announced it will accept Alipay in more than 2100 restaurants.

The launch will commence in Shanghai this month and spread across all the fast food chain;’s locations in China by March 2016.

“McDonald’s will work together with Ant Financial and Alipay to upgrade its services by integrating data technologies,” Ant Financial sais in a statement.

“All restaurants in China are undergoing system upgrade and the set-up will be complete to accept Alipay as its new payment method by March, 2016.

“It will take customers only two seconds to pay their meals at McDonald’s after introducing Alipay to its outlets by scanning the QR code in users’ Alipay. It will be more convenient and efficient for both customers and cashiers.”

Another venture set up between Alibaba and Ant Financial – Koubei – allows consumers to pay for goods using their smartphones. Koubei is expected to be accepted by McDonald’s China also.

Alipay’s McDonald’s China deal follows another announced last week with hotel chain Marriott as Alipay gains growing momentum in gaining market share from more traditional systems like UnionPay and even cash. Walmart starting accepting Alipay in May and KFC announced a partnership in June.

“Alipay is now accepted in over 200,000 offline retailers and eateries across China and another 30,000 shops in Seoul, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Germany,” Ant Financial.