The partnership will give customers of China UnionPay, a national electronic-payment network, the ability to make Internet purchases from Web sites overseas, said EBay.

PayPal, the world?s largest online-payments processor besides credit-card companies such as Visa Inc., is fighting to establish itself in China, a market with almost 400 million Internet users. Alipay, a unit of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has 300 million users, three times as many as PayPal in China.

PayPal also said Wednesday it will double its workforce in the Asia-Pacific region to 2,000 by the end of 2010.

Internet transactions through services such as Alipay more than doubled to 576.6 billion yuan ($84.5 billion) last year and will reach 2.75 trillion yuan in 2013, according to Beijing-based research firm IResearch. Alipay controlled about 50 percent of the market in 2009, compared with about 21 percent for nearest rival Tenpay, offered by Internet company Tencent Holdings Ltd., IResearch said.

China UnionPay, based in Shanghai, was established in 2002 and operates the inter-bank clearing and settlement system in China.

Before today, PayPal offered Chinese consumers and businesses two types of accounts: one that allowed domestic transactions in yuan and a second that permitted purchases abroad through dual-currency credit cards. The new program allows customers with a UnionPay credit or debit card to make overseas purchases.

Source : Konaxis

eBay’s PayPal was negotiating with Alibaba and trying to make its China online payment services join Alibaba’s global express in China. If agreement is reached, U.S. consumers will be able to send money through PayPal into China, Paypal will also begin a new business in China.

Alibaba said to the “Daily Economic News” that “do not know about the the cooperation details between two sides.”

At the end of last year, Alibaba launched a global express pass (offer one-stop service platform of wholesale prices, secure payment and whole delivery tracking), but the “global express pass” default payment option is alipay platform. Although Alipay is China’s leading online payment platform, it is unknown in the international markets (including the U.S.)

Cao Fei, Yi Guan International analyst said in an interview with “Daily Economic News” that including alipay, Alibaba’s international layout is not satisfactory in the current situation. From this point of view, it is possible to have cooperation with overseas payment system.

In regard to the cooperation in the rumors, Cao Fei believed it was “mutual need”, and to Alibaba payment platform is not an exlusive or sole access, and the system can be used simultaneously by Alipay and Paypal, and when the penetration of Alipay is more extensive, the Alipay users can also replace the paypal users. “

With this cooperation, clients of CITS can easily fulfill a payment by using their personal PayPal accounts, a debit card, a bank account or a credit card. Stephanie Tilenius, vice president and general manager for merchant services at PayPal, says that PayPal is an ideal payment solution for such a business as CITS that owns clients throughout the world. Tilenius says that PayPal currently provides payment services in 17 kinds of currencies in 190 countries and regions across the world.

Liu Guixiang, vice president of CITS, believes that PayPal has brought much convenience for clients of CITS. Liu says that CITS hopes to offer more convenient services for PayPal users and CITS clients around the globe by enabling them to use their PayPal accounts to book travel products on CITS’ website.

Source : Chinatechnews

By using the service, prospective travelers can use PayPal as an escrow service and relay money to travel agencies without revealing bank account details.

CITS is engaged in providing hotel reservation, air ticket booking and many other travel related services to tourists from both home and abroad. By providing PayPal payment service, it hopes to make its service more convenient and safer for its customers.

Source : Chinatechnews