Alibaba wants to change the face of payment

Hangzhou, China – Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba Holding Group Inc. wants to change the face of payment. In public comments made at the CeBit technology conference in Hannover, Germany, on March 15, Alibaba chairman Jack Ma said his company’s subsidiary Ant Financial is developing a service called “Smile to Pay” that would let consumers pay for purchases with a facial scan.



Smile to Pay, currently in beta, will be a feature of Alibaba’s Alipay digital payment service and Alipay digital wallet. There is no public timetable, but Smile to Pay will be initially rolled out in China and then possibly made available to consumers in other countries.



According to CNBC, Alibaba is also testing other disruptive payment verification methods. These include a special phrase spoken by the consumer and a method called "Kong Fu," which would confirm payment by scanning a personal attribute like a tattoo or a pet.