On the afternoon of September 16, at the 14th China Payment & Clearing Forum, Ant Group Co., Ltd. CEO Han Xinyi reviewed Alipay's development journey over the past two decades, stating that China's mobile payment sector is entering a new innovation cycle in the AI era. He identified technological advancement, innovation with integrity, and regulatory empowerment as the driving forces behind payment industry development. Looking ahead, he emphasized that Ant Group Co., Ltd. will continue to focus on innovative connectivity, co-creating new payment experiences and sharing interconnected ecosystems to better serve the real economy's high-quality development.

Han Xinyi noted that emerging hardware continuously expands new user scenarios, while the barriers to meeting user demands keep decreasing. In this process, innovative payment solutions emerge naturally, not only simplifying payment procedures but also activating incremental market space, thereby accelerating the adoption of new payment methods and creating a flywheel effect.

Using Alipay's new payment services launched over 20 years as an example, he outlined three innovation cycles:

Starting in 2004, with the popularization of PCs, online payments began to rise. Combined with Alipay's escrow payment and express payment services, this significantly reduced trust and usage barriers for online transactions, driving the prosperity of the e-commerce industry.

Around 2011, smartphones and 3G networks became mainstream, with more users completing payments on mobile devices. The successive introduction of QR code payments and facial recognition payments further simplified mobile payments and reduced transaction costs. This not only propelled the prosperity of mobile internet but also helped China's mobile payment coverage reach 86%, ranking first globally.

Beginning in 2024, NFC-enabled phones, smart cockpits, smart glasses, and AI agents have gradually matured, with service entry points shifting accordingly. The emergence of "Tap to Pay," "Look to Pay," and "AI Payment" aligns with the demands of this era and will help drive the prosperity of the AI industry ecosystem.

"Tap to Pay" is an innovative payment experience launched by Alipay based on QR code payments, utilizing NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. Users simply unlock their phones and tap the payment device to complete transactions. This simplified payment method is particularly suitable for elderly users, visually impaired individuals, and foreign tourists. Over the past four months, it has added 100 million new users, with total users exceeding 200 million, showing accelerated growth momentum.

"Look to Pay" is a new service launched by Alipay for smart glasses and similar devices. Users wearing glasses can look at QR codes or tap devices, verbally state the payment amount for confirmation, addressing payment needs when hands are not available for phone use.

"AI Payment" represents Alipay's series of payment services for the AI era, offering solutions such as "Payment MCP Service," "AI Tipping Service," and "AI Pay" to meet payment demands in new scenarios involving AI tools and intelligent agent services.

Han Xinyi stated that the new payment innovation cycle features experiences such as "phones can tap," "glasses and cars can look," and "intelligent agents can speak," making payment experiences as natural as human-to-human communication. This has also formed a complete ecosystem encompassing hardware supply chains, smart terminals, service providers, and merchants, with ecosystem partners continuously inspiring each other and iterating improvements.