Alipay, one of Chinese largest online payment platforms, recently announced that it has joined hands with First Data Corp, a US credit card company, with an aim to step up its global expansion in North America, reported South China Morning Post on May 9. This enables Alipay users to make mobile payments in four million merchants and retailers of the region and satisfy the need of over four million Chinese consumers who visit North America every year. Since their collaboration last year, they have succeeded in testing the implementation of Alipay's mobile payment service in selected specialty and high-end retail stores in New York and California. Though Alipay is estimated to have more than 450 million global active users, it is going to face fierce competition from US homegrown online payment service providers in the region such as PayPal and Apple Pay.