Alibaba introduces 'Smile to Pay' service in China

E-commerce giant Alibaba has introduced a facial recognition service called "Smile to Pay" in Hangzhou district in China that is aligned for use with Alipay online payment and Alipay Wallet like Apple Pay.

"Alibaba's 'Ant Financial' affiliate launched the 'Smile to Pay' service where the company's global HQ are located and is being trialled with KFC," Tech Crunch reported on Monday.

The company's Founder and CEO Jack Ma in March had first alerted about the new face recognition tool for mobile payments.

According to Ma, "Smile to Pay" would first be rolled out in China and then in other countries.

"As the video from 'Ant' shows, the payment process doesn't require a smartphone, assuming that the customer has already signed up for the Alipay app and enabled facial recognition," the report added.

With the aim to revolutionise offline retail spaces through a new technology, the Alibaba Group had launched a cashless store earlier this year.

The new retail concept is being introduced through Alibaba's experimental cashless store called Tao Cafe at its 2017 Taobao Maker Festival in Hangzhou.

--IANS

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