China is streets ahead when it comes to digital payments. The latest leap is facial recognition technology that allows a customer to pay by literally flashing a smile.<\/p>\n
Alibaba\u2019s Ant Financial affiliate launched the \u2018smile to pay\u2019 service in Huangzhou, the location of the company\u2019s global HQ, where it is being trialled with KFC.<\/p>\n
As the video from Ant below shows, the payment process doesn\u2019t require a smartphone, assuming that the customer has already signed up for the Alipay app and enabled facial recognition.\u00a0A 3D camera located at the point-of-sale scans the customer\u2019s face to verify their identity, while there is a phone number verification option for additional security.<\/p>\n
This trial is the culmination of a number of deals for Alibaba.<\/p>\n
The company first showed off facial recognition technology at IFA in Germany two years ago when President\u00a0Jack Ma showed off\u00a0some basic capabilities, including the option to snap a selfie to pay. The options have advanced somewhat since then. Under the hood, Alibaba uses a technology called Face++ from Chinese startup\u00a0Megvii, which raised over $150 million from investors that include Foxconn.<\/p>\n
KFC was an obvious first adopter since\u00a0Alibaba is an investor in Yum China, which operates the brand and other fast food franchises including McDonalds and Taco Bell in China.<\/p>\n
Alibaba has been pushing its vision of the future of commerce, which it believes integrates elements from online and offline retail.\u00a0It launched a cash-less store\u00a0earlier this summer, and it\u00a0operates 10 neighborhood stores in Shanghai\u00a0which use a mobile app to optimize the customer experience.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to see how \u2018smile to pay\u2019 fits into that strategy, while also boosting the popularity of Alipay. That\u2019s important because it is closely rivaled by Tencent\u2019s WeChat Pay \u2014 a payment system connected to China\u2019s hugely popular WeChat messenger app.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Tech Crunch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China is streets ahead when it comes to digital payments. The latest leap is facial recognition technology that allows a customer to pay by literally flashing a smile. Alibaba\u2019s Ant Financial affiliate launched the \u2018smile to pay\u2019 service in Huangzhou, the location of the company\u2019s global HQ, where it is being trialled with KFC. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[3496,139],"yoast_head":"\n