I blog regularly about what a fanboy I am of Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent. It’s getting a bit ridiculous now however, when payments companies are designing payments for cats and dogs … or maybe it’s not … it’s just an extension of technologies that work for humans.
My last blog on this subject was May last year, where I mentioned the amazingly impressive Smile-to-Pay service operates. You can dress up in makeup, wear a wig, stand with five friends at a payments checkout and it will still recognise your facial features.
It means that Chinese GenZ, millennials and more can leave their phone at home if they want, although that’s unlikely, but if they forgot their phone then they can just Smile-to-Pay.
It’s a biometric service that actually debuted back in 2017 after beginning developments back in 2015. Five years is a long time in China technology terms, and so the company announced a new thing this week: pet insurance based upon your pet’s unique nose print.
Here’s the lowdown:
Alipay's insurance platform on Monday launched pet insurance that uses nose print recognition technology for the first time in China.
When taking out insurance, the Alipay insurance platform sets up an exclusive electronic file for each pet based on its nose print. And the platform can check the nose print to verify a pet's identity before completing a claim.
Back in July 2019, Chinese AI start-up Megvii launched a nose print recognition function in its application to help reunite owners with their lost pets. Nose prints are similar to human fingerprints in that they are unique.
It was reported that the success rate of pet nose print recognition technology is more than 99 percent. The technology will be used in multiple scenarios in the future, including urban pet management and the recovery of lost pets.
Data showed that Alipay has 900 million users in China and a further 400 million overseas, and Xiang Hu Bao, an insurance platform built in the payment app and launched on October 18, 2018, had more than 100 million users by November 2019.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
