Alipay’s move reflects Chinese tech giants’ commitment to helping broaden the sovereign digital currency adoption.
Alibaba’s Alipay announced on May 5 that its app has added a new search function for the official e-CNY wallet to help users smooth their digital experience within its platform.
The add-on function allows users to search for and download the official digital wallet via Alipay. In the pilot areas, users can then open an account with Ant Group’s MYBank and make purchases with e-CNY on the app.
Nearly 6 million digital RMB wallets have been pushed to merchants served by Alipay since the pilot, said Alipay.
The digital currency has already been smoothly tried out in over 10 places from Shenzhen to Shanghai and Xiong'an New Area, adjacent to Beijing.
In April, China's central bank announced that the pilot program will be expanded to another 11 domestic cities. They include Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities, Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong province, Fuzhou and Xiamen in East China's Fujian province, and six cities in East China's Zhejiang province that are to host the 2022 Asian Games.
According to the latest data from the PBOC, there are over 261 million e-CNY users at the end of 2021, with CNY 87.565 billion worth of transactions completed.
Tencent-backed WeChat Pay, another domestic mobile payments provider, had set up a similar e-CNY wallet function on its app previously in April.