Perspectives
Chinese E-commerce giant, Alibaba, is struggling with two of its biggest online payment systems, eBay subsidiary, Paypal, and Alibaba’s own homegrown payment service, Alipay. With the future of these two payment systems in doubt, questions have arisen about how retailers will pay for wholesale products purchased through the huge overseas trading company.
According to Forbes, eBay and Paypal had been working closely with AliExpress, an Alibaba subsidiary that focuses on wholesale. However, Alibaba has been moving more toward a business model that focuses on consumers, in addition to business-to-business trade. Responding to Alibaba’s increasing encroachment on its ecommerce turf, eBay has recently ended its year-old partnership with Alibaba. Forbes cites Reuters in suggesting that eBay was unhappy with rising consumer business on AliExpress, which is meant for businesses. Soon thereafter, Paypal announced that it was pulling out of a partnership in Alibaba’s business-to-business platform.