Chinese Internet payment service provider Alipay formally announced entry into South Africa.

The company is aiming to serve Chinese tourists who visit this country.

Rita Liu, Alipay's head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, said that they will cooperation with their partner ACI Worldwide, a local company named Peach Payments, and a local travel bus company City Sightseeing to provide more convenient traveling experiences to Chinese tourists.

Liu said Alipay launched services in Europe in 2016 and so far about 10,000 vendors in Europe accept payments via Alipay. Meanwhile, Alipay has reached 120,000 vendors around the world.

Alipay's parent company Ant Financial has formally started its global expansion and they made investments in Singapore's payment platform HelloPay, American company Moneygram, and India's leading e-commerce platform Paytm.

As Alipay's competitor, Tencent's WeChat payment also launched services in South Africa. In 2015, the company selected South Africa as the first stop for its overseas expansion.