At the 2025 INCLUSION · Conference on the Bund in Shanghai, Alipay announced that its QR code-based contactless payment and engagement solution, Alipay Tap!, has grown to 200 million users in China since its launch in June 2024.
This milestone follows the platform surpassing 100 million users in April 2025.
Alipay Tap! allows users to complete a transaction or access a service by tapping their unlocked phone on a merchant’s terminal or Alipay Tap! Tag, removing the need to open an app, scan a code, or navigate multiple screens.
As Alipay continues to evolve from a digital wallet into a platform connecting one billion consumers with 80 million merchants nationwide, Alipay Tap! has become a gateway to its ecosystem of services.
The solution now supports more than 1,000 everyday scenarios, including vending machines, shared bike rentals, and portable power bank access.
“When given the choice between traditional QR code scanning and Alipay Tap!, 80% of Alipay’s users prefer Tap! to access services,”
the company said, highlighting the convenience driving its adoption.
Merchants have also reported benefits beyond faster checkout.
National snack chain Haoxianglai, an early adopter, stated that it gained 13 million new loyalty sign-ups at checkout and saw a 60% increase in repeat purchases from members after integrating Alipay Tap! within one year.
Alipay Tap! is available to international visitors to China, who can bind their international cards to an Alipay account to pay and travel across the country.
Looking ahead, Alipay is expanding Tap! beyond smartphones.
The company is working with partners such as Xiaomi, Rokid, and RayNeo to enable Tap! on wearables, including AR glasses and smartwatches.
On the same day at the conference, Alipay also introduced its first AI agent payment service, now available in Luckin Coffee’s app and mini-programmes.
The service allows users to place and pay for orders directly through voice commands to Luckin’s AI assistant.
This is the first time Alipay has integrated ordering and payment within AI agents, making payment a native part of the AI-driven ordering experience.
Featured image credit: Alipay
