Alibaba launched the Alipay payment service in China in 2004.
Alipay was created to support transactions on Alibaba’s online marketplaces, especially Taobao, where buyers and sellers needed greater trust in remote purchases. Its early escrow-style model held a buyer’s payment until the transaction was confirmed, helping reduce concerns about fraud and non-delivery.
The service grew from an online marketplace payment tool into a broad digital-payments platform operated through Ant Group. It has supported online shopping, mobile payments, bill payments, transfers, and other financial services.
Alipay is often confused with WeChat Pay, which is operated by Tencent and became a major rival in China. PayPal is a separate American payments company and was not Alibaba’s 2004 payment service.