(Yicai) July 9 -- Alipay, the mobile payment platform of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, now allows users to make quick and easy payments using the near field communication technology in their phones.

Thanks to the new Tap! service, “users no longer need to show a QR payment code as before and can pay by simply tapping their phones on merchants’ point of sales devices,” Shanghai Securities News quoted Alipay product manager Gao Zheng as saying at the Alipay Open Day yesterday.

More than 2,300 brands and vendors in the cities of Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou, and Fuzhou have become the first to support the NFC payment service.

Tap! offers users an alternative and more efficient payment experience, Gao noted, adding that it also opens up more possibilities for future payment and digital development.

Hangzhou-based Alipay introduced its QR code-based mobile payment system in 2011 and rolled out its face-scanning payments system in December 2018, both of which have been widely embraced by consumers. 

Editor: Martin Kadiev