China Mobile Zhejiang branch has announced plans to cooperate with Zhejiang Alipay Internet Technology, the online payment subsidiary of the Chinese B2B e-commerce company Alibaba Group, to provide an additional payment channel for the customers of its online store.

With the cooperation, China Mobile Zhejiang will connect its system to that of Alipay to make the latter an important payment method for its online store. Users who buy mobile phones numbers, packages and customized mobiles phones from the store will be able to pay through their Alipay accounts. For the next step, the two sides may cooperate in more areas, including the sale of value-added products and the 3G-related businesses.

According to Alipay, this is the first time for China Mobile to cooperate with a third-party payment platform. Prior to this, the major payment channels for China Mobile Zhejiang's online store are Internet banks and cash on delivery.

Before the cooperation with China Mobile, Alipay achieved partnership with another Chinese leading telecommunications operator China Telecom and provides online payment services to its branches in cities and provinces such as Beijing, Yunnan, Hebei, Sichuan, and Chongqing. The cooperation with China Mobile is expected to further enhance Alipay's leading position as an online payment provider for China's telecommunications operators.