PayPal China Country Head Jeff Liao Not Worried about Competitor Alipay

From Pacific Epoch: Interview: PayPal China Country Head Jeff Liao (excerpt)

"After much anticipation, eBay's PayPal has finally arrived in China. However, C2C site Taobao's payment system Alipay has a head start, with almost two years of operating experience and more than 2 million users. Paypal is not worried. Pacific Epoch editors Paul Waide and Shang Koo sat down with Paypal China country manager Jeff Liao and talked about Paypal's plans in China.

Alipay is your biggest competitor at least in the media's eyes. Are you worried about competitors in China?

"Not at all. PayPal pioneered online payment back in 1998, we were the one that identified the unique business model and we now own 72 million accounts. China is the second largest market in the world, with more than 100 million users and there are a couple of payment companies in the market but I don't see any that are serious players. The one you've mentioned is only being used on one site. We have Netease, we have Tom Online, we have a strategic alliance with ChinaPay - the alliance is to share their Internet merchant base with us. PayPal, "Bei Bao" in China is going to be an open platform. So almost any Chinese Internet site can use PayPal.

Two, three, five years I think there will be competition, there will be two, three, four, five major players. But today, I don't see that.

One of the advantages of PayPal around the globe is that we always follow eBay. Globally, it is the number one auction site, eBay Eachnet is the number one auction site in China. Do our competitors have that advantage. PayPal is an open platform, anybody can use it. From day one we are on Netease, from day one we are on Tom Online. Have you seen any other payment company, whether it is mobile or online, getting traction? No."

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