Alibaba Group, a global e-commerce company based in China and Bank of China (BOC) have entered into strategic alliance to collaborate on several e-commerce initiatives including online payment, international business cooperation, small business financing and joint marketing.
Under the terms of their alliance, Alibaba and BOC will jointly develop the Alipay Card (a smart card to be issued by Alibaba Group’s subsidiary Alipay) and a trust rating system. They will also roll out a small enterprise loan-assistance scheme and pursue credit card innovation and other innovations related to import-export and small businesses.
Reporetdly, in early 2007, Alipay entered into cooperation with Bank of China to launch overseas payment service. Alipay in cooperation with Bank of China launched online banking services,in April 2009.
Jack Ma, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, said: We look forward to this partnership with Bank of China, and leveraging that institution’s expertise, to help our small business customers to expand their marketing and sales on a global basis while at the same time also educating ourselves.”
