Uber riders in India and China can now hail cabs globally without a credit card

Uber has partnered with Chinese online payment platform Alipay and its Indian equivalent Paytm to enable Uber users from both countries to seamlessly hail and pay for a cab ride in all the cities where Uber operates. While Uber's global integration with Alipay started from today, it will soon be introduced for Paytm as well.

With the new integration, Alipay’s 450 million users can also pay for their rides in their own currency using the app. The American company will also introduce a similar feature for Indian travellers on Paytm, a digital payment wallet backed by Alibaba and with which Alipay has been sharing its technology. This means that Chinese and Indian travellers will no longer have to worry about converting currency and language barriers when hailing a cab outside their country.

Uber was already linked to Alipay in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, but Chinese users had to use a dual-currency credit card while using the Uber app outside their country and pay in US dollars. Similarly, while Uber is integrated with Paytm in India, users were unable to use their Indian credit cards or Paytm while travelling abroad. The new integration effectively eliminates the need for currency conversions and credit cards. Alipay users will also see geo-targeted promotions while travelling.

“We are excited to work with the world's largest third-party payment platform Alipay. This enables us to bring this top-notch experience to the ever-growing number of Chinese travellers who chose to use Uber internationally,” Eric Alexander, head of business, Uber Asia Pacific, said.

The partnership is aimed at growing Uber’s user base in China and India, which are the company's biggest markets after the US. In India, Uber has been in conflict with local authorities, after governments in Delhi and Karnataka effectively banned surge pricing in the last one month. Uber has recently re-started surge pricing in Delhi, in defiance of the government's orders. Its fleet in the city has also reduced considerably after India's Supreme Court banned diesel and petrol cabs in the city to curb air pollution.

The announcement comes only a few weeks after Lyft and Chinese taxi app Didi started an integration that lets Lyft users hail a Didi in China using the Lyft app and vice-versa. Last year, Didi Kuaidi, Ola, Lyft and GrabTaxi also entered into a global alliance to share customers. Uber’s integration will be important for the Chinese market, where it trails behind Didi Kuaidi.

In turn, for Alibaba's Alipay, this is a step towards expanding its footprint to 69 countries and becoming a global digital payment wallet. Alibaba also holds a stake in Didi Kuaidi, which is an investor in Uber’s Indian rival Ola. Alibaba is also the larger investor in Paytm, and had announced the integration of the Paytm and Alipay platforms this January. "The beauty of this integration is that users will be able to easily use home payment systems globally," Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma added.