(Yicai Global) June 9 -- After testing the waters in offline stores in Germany last year, AliPay, China's biggest third-party payment platform, has now set its sights on two other German-speaking countries bordering its newly-conquered territory, Austria and Switzerland.

Concardis GmbH, AliPay's German counterpart and partner, announced yesterday it has helped to launch AliPay services in physical stores in the two adjacent countries, China News Service reported.

Austria's traditional fashion brand Goessl has been the first to embrace the Chinese payment service via code scanning, after making AliPay available in its 20 branch stores, while in Switzerland, inception of the service placement is slated for October.

AliPay and Concardis initiated their partnership last October by offering AliPay payment services in Gerhard D. Wempe KG (luxury brand) stores in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne, Germany. Alipay has done very well in its campaign in Germany, being accepted by hundreds of stores, including famous brand outlets like TOD's and Timberland, in addition to Wempe, Concardis said. The Bundesliga giant BVB also enables visitors in its home venue Signal Iduna Park and different souvenir stores to make payments with AliPay.

Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, AliPay has now become the leading third-party payment platform in China. Ant Financial is another subsidiary of Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [NYSE:BABA]. Its German partner Concardis, with its over 470 thousand payment terminals, is a leading payment service supplier in Europe.

AliPay's expansion in the three German-speaking countries (Germany, Switzerland and Austria) is only a small step in its aggressive march into Europe. Ant Financial announced recently that Monaco, the so-called 'Center of Trip' of Europe, has signed a strategic partnership agreement with AliPay, which will help launch AliPay services in all its merchants nationwide.