Alipay, Huawei to promote mobile fingerprint payment

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BEIJING - China's largest third-party payment platform, Alipay, is joining forces with telecommunications giant Huawei to develop a service allowing cellphone users to make online payments using fingerprints as verification.

The cutting-edge service will be applied on Huawei's flagship Ascend Mate 7, which is installed with a fingerprint sensor and is expected to debut in Berlin on Thursday.

Users can make payments or transfer money through Alipay Wallet, a mobile application of Alipay, part of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

The security of users is protected by a specific technology that prevents third-party applications from being able to read the fingerprints, said Li Xiaolong, a senior Huawei executive in charge of the mobile phone business.

Fingerprint payment is a promising step forward in the mobile world, with international cellphone giants from Apple to Samsung also exploring its commercial use, said Kong Qi, a senior Alipay manager.