Alipay Partners with Yelp to Continue its Pursuit of Chinese Tourist Money

Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliated valued at $60 billion, is continuing to follow Chinese tourists and their wallets overseas after it inked a deal with Yelp in the U.S.

The partnership allows Alipay users — and there are over 500 million registered in China — to make payment through the service when they use Yelp for restaurant bookings. The launch initially covers restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco, but there are plans to expand more widely across the country.

There are also plans to launch a version of the app that is translated into Mandarin Chinese to help travelers.

This tie-in follows a major expansion from Alipay in the U.S. in May. The Chinese firm teamed up with First Data in a move that brings support for its mobile payment system to point-of-sales systems of more than four million retail partners in the U.S. That’s a peg that this Yelp deal is hanging on, since the integration will only work for Yelp restaurant partners that accept Alipay.

Alipay also massively increased its potential with global retailers looking to reach Chinese consumers online when Stripe added support for its service earlier this summer. Stripe also added rival WeChat Pay from Tencent to its roster.