优步与支付宝扩大合作以吸引中国消费者

为了吸引中国消费者，优步（Uber）现在瞄准了消费者的钱包——实际上是他们的数字钱包。

这家叫车服务公司在周二表示，公司将开始支持中国消费者在超过68个国家和400个城市旅行时，使用中国流行的数字支付应用支付宝（Alipay）付费。

作为合作的一部分，现在，用户可通过支付宝的手机应用使用优步的服务，这将帮助优步直接为支付宝的4.5亿中国用户提供服务。中国用户在国外也可以通过支付宝应用使用优步叫车服务。

优步此次扩大与支付宝的合作，目的是为了在潜力巨大的中国叫车市场获得助力。目前，优步远远落后于中国本地市场领导者滴滴出行（Didi Chuxing），位居第二位。优步中国战略负责人柳甄表示，优步目前在中国叫车市场占有约三分之一的份额。

最近，优步与滴滴出行的竞争已经扩大到了中国海外市场。去年，滴滴出行宣布将与另外三家叫车服务公司合作，与优步展开竞争。上个月，滴滴出行的客户在美国出行时，终于可以使用手机应用来福车（Lyft）的叫车服务，此外，滴滴出行正在计划与印度的Ola和东南亚的Grab等本地叫车服务公司建立类似的合作关系。

优步扩大与支付宝的合作，可以帮助吸引出行频繁的中国消费者，因为消费者在出行时不需要通过其他支付方法使用优步。此外，中国游客可以通过支付宝应用使用优步叫车服务，不必再下载优步的应用。

柳甄表示，诸如阿里巴巴公司旗下的支付宝服务对于希望在中国开展业务的供应商至关重要，因为多数中国消费者没有信用卡。支付宝美国负责人在去年夏天曾告诉《财富》杂志（Fortune），由于支付宝非常受欢迎，因此，当消费者发现他们可以通过支付宝支付商户的服务时，很快便可以建立起对商户的信任。

两家公司并未披露具体的财务条款，不过优步高级业务副总裁埃米尔•迈克尔指出，支付宝会对每一笔通过该应用完成的交易抽取佣金，这或许可以为我们提供一些线索。

但这并不意味着优步在竞争中取得胜利——因为支付宝应用早已支持滴滴出行的服务，另外据滴滴出行的发言人表示，通过其他流行应用也可以使用滴滴出行服务，如微信（WeChat）、阿里旅行（Alitrip）和腾讯地图（Tencent Map）等。但优步与微信的母公司、滴滴出行的投资者腾讯（Tencent）之间的关系却并不融洽。

去年，微信封杀了优步，后来在《华尔街日报》（Wall Street Journal）举办的一次会议上，当被问及具体情况时，优步联合创始人兼CEO特拉维斯•卡兰尼克（Travis Kalanick）说了下面一番话：“在中国的竞争是不同的。”此事对于优步来说无疑是一次沉重打击。去年，优步一直在大力投资中国业务。

此外，优步与支付宝表示，双方的合作也会扩大到印度支付服务Paytm。Paytm一直与支付宝有密切合作。两家公司称，现在，Paytm的用户在印度境内出行和到中国旅行时，均可通过Paytm应用使用优步的叫车服务。

优步早在2014年便允许中国消费者使用支付宝支付车费。今年2月份，优步扩大了与支付宝的合作，允许中国消费者在中国大陆之外的地区，包括中国香港、台湾和澳门等地，使用支付宝付费，无需信用卡。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

In a chase for Chinese customers, Uber is now going after their wallets—their digital wallets, that is.

The ride-hailing company said on Tuesday that it would begin to let Chinese customers pay for rides using popular Chinese digital payments app Alipay when they travel to more than 68 countries and 400 cities.

As part of the partnership, Uber’s service will now also be available through Alipay’s mobile app, helping Uber skip the line and land right into the palm of Alipay’s 450 million Chinese users. Alipay’s users will be able to hail an Uber ride through the app outside of China as well.

Uber’s move is designed to give it a leg up in the potentially huge Chinese ride-hailing market, where the company is a distant second place behind local leader Didi Chuxing. Uber controls about one third of all Chinese ride hailing bookings, according to Uber China strategy head Zhen Liu.

The rivalry between the two companies has also recently spilled beyond the country’s borders whenDidi Chuxing announced last year that it would team with three other ride-hailing companies to take on Uber. Last month, Didi Chuxing customers were finally able to start using their mobile app to hail a ride through Lyft when traveling to the U.S., and similar partnerships are planned with local ride-hailing companies in India, through Ola, and Southeast Asia, through Grab.

Uber’s expanded partnership with Alipay could help Uber compete for Chinese frequent travelers because they would no longer need to link additional payment methods in Uber when traveling. Chinese visitors would also be able to book Uber rides through Alipay’s app without needing to download the ride-hailing company’s app.

Services like Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba’s parent company, are hugely important in China and for vendors that wish to operate there because most Chinese consumers don’t have a credit card, Liu said. Because it’s so popular, Alipay also helps merchants immediately gain trust from Chinese consumers when they see they can pay through the service, Alipay’s U.S. chief told Fortune last summer.

The companies declined to share details about their financial arrangement, though Uber’s senior vice president of business, Emil Michael, pointed out that Alipay traditionally takes commissions from transactions it drives to other services as a hint.

Still, the battle isn’t won for Uber yet—Alipay’s app already sports Didi Chuxing’s service, which is also available through other massively popular apps like WeChat, Alitrip, and Tencent Map, according to a Didi Chuxing spokesman. Uber, on the other hand, has had a rough relationship with WeChat’s parent company and Didi Chuxing investor Tencent.

Last year, WeChat blocked Uber’s access to the app, leading Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick to later remark that “competition in China works different” after being asked about the situation during a Wall Street Journal conference. The move was an obvious blow to Uber, which has been heavily investing in its Chinese operation over the past year.

Uber and Alipay’s partnership also extends to Paytm, an Indian payments service that works closely with Alipay, the companies said. Now, Paytm’s users will be able to use the app to hail an Uber ride while getting around in India, as well as when they travel to China, the companies said.

Uber first let Chinese customers use Alipay in 2014 to pay for rides. In February, it expanded the deal to let Chinese use it instead of a credit card outside mainland China, starting in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau.