e-CNY pay function launched by Taobao and Alipay: Digital Yuan gets power.

Taobao and Alipay have launched platforms to allow usage of the Digital yuan.
The “digital yuan services” bundle will be launched sequentially in the coming weeks and months.
Alipay and WeChat pay covers 15% of the nation’s payment market.

In the last decade, China has been ahead by leaps and bounds in technological excellence. Now, the tech giant of the country, Alibaba, claimed that from now on, it would allow its customers to pay on their Taobao e-commerce platform with the Digital yuan and the market-leading Alipay e-payments platform.

Digital Yuan, or e-CNY, is China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) issued by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

The exciting announcement was made by the Chief Compliance officer of the Ant Group, Li Chen, which is the fintech arm of Alibaba. Ant operates both Alibaba’s Online banking arms and Alipay. Le Chen was speaking at the Zhejiang digital trade forum.

“Alipay has joined the digital yuan acceptance network. It is the first payment platform to support the digital yuan.”

Li added that the Digital Yuan wallet would be a ‘fast payment function’ launched in Taobao. This allows the customers to use their digital yuan holdings at checkouts from airports or hotels.

The bundle of digital yuan-related services shall be “launched in batches” in the coming weeks and months.

The new Alipay link shall allow the holders of the CBDC of the pilot zone to use these coins to pay for services and goods on Alibaba subsidiaries as well. The list includes Tmall-Mart, their smart online supermarket, their chain of grocery stores Hema, and their food delivery network Ele.me.

The media outlet conveyed to users that by simply updating Alipay and Taobao apps, they can get started with the Digital CNY payment facility right away. During checkouts, they can find prompts or pop ups that will lead them to the payment options of their Digital Yuan wallets.

If the user clicks the “learn how to use” section on the Alipay app, they can search for a new “paying with digital yuan” section.

Taobao is China’s answer to Amazon, and has become the country’s most popular e-commerce website, along with JD.com. While JD.com has been active in the sphere of digital CNY, it has also pioneered a wide range of giveaways in its pilot zone areas.

The Chinese e-payment market has been dominated by two rivals, WeChat pay and Alipay. And they share 15% of the total national payments market combined. WeChat pay is the creation of Tencent.

The Chinese government has been saying for quite a while that the digital yuan is not an Alipay/WeeChat pay rival. However, some speculate that Beijing has carefully planned this to break its market dominance.

Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing