Alibaba Group's collective buying subsidiary Juhuasuan.com and Internet payment subsidiary Alipay.com have formed alliance with Focus Media to jointly develop the Chinese online to offline market.
The three parties launched a new shopping and payment service that allows smartphone users who have installed Alipay's mobile client to shoot the two-dimensional codes of products with smartphones and buy these products and services on Juhuasuan.com by using Focus Media's display screens.
At present, this new service is available in seven Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Chengdu. According to Focus Media's statements to local media, there are currently over 30,000 Focus Media display screens that can provide this service.
Fan Zhiming, vice president of Alipay.com, revealed that since the two-dimensional code payment is now applicable in various places like the Internet, newspapers, and magazines, the company plans to expand similar cooperation into more sectors in the future.
Jiang Nanchun, chief executive officer of Focus Media, said that the cooperation of the three parties can reduce redundant links from advertising to purchases, which has a positive meaning for turning advertising into cash and can help better evaluate the effect of advertising.
So far, iPhone and Android smartphone users can access this new service by downloading Alipay's mobile client.