China’s Alipay.com Acquires OnCard Payments

Alipay.com, the Internet payment subsidiary of the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba, has announced that it has reached an agreement with OnCard International to acquire its third-party payment service subsidiary, OnCard Payments.

Oncard Payments provides online payment services to passengers of major airlines, including Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, and EVA Air. It also provides a payment interface to the call centers of these airlines, allowing their customers to enjoy smooth payment experience on the websites of these companies.

This is reportedly the first acquisition in the Chinese third-party payment industry since the Chinese government issued the first batch of payment business licenses in May 2011. On the completion of the acquisition, the services of Alipay.com and OnCard Payments will be integrated and more users in China will be able to buy tickets of Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, and EVA Air via Alipay.com.

Jing Xiandong, chief financial officer of Alipay.com,told local media that OnCard Payments started offering payment services to Cathay Pacific from 2006. With this acquisition, Alipay.com can gain the experienced team from OnCard Payments while serving these Asia-based airlines.

No financial details of the deal has been disclosed yet.