The launch of Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in early September and the launch of Apple Pay earlier this month could be a good fit with Alibaba’s Alipay service, which already has 300 million users. And because every owner of a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus is also signed up for iTunes, every new iPhone that is shipped snags another of the 800 million users who already have a payment option selected for their iTunes accounts.
Alibaba has already launched a shopping website in the United States, and its market cap, which has grown about 40% since the IPO, is larger than that of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) combined. The Chinese company may be most interested in Alipay as an entry point into China’s brick-and-mortar businesses.
Is a business alliance of some sort between Apple and Alibaba even possible? Assuming the technical issues can be solved, that still leaves at least two governments that will have something to say about any kind of cooperative venture. The Chinese government already allows Chinese consumers to transfer money from their banks to their Alipay accounts. And those banks are beginning to resist allowing non-banking businesses to offer traditional banking services. That opposition will only get stronger if Apple is allowed in.
Nothing is likely to happen soon, but Alibaba chief Jack Ma has stirred up an interesting pot.
Apple’s stock traded at $106.27, up 1.1%, at the noon hour Tuesday, after posting a new 52-week high of $106.37 earlier. The 52-week low is $70.51.
Alibaba shares traded at $99.90, up more than 2%, after posting a new post-IPO high of $100.50. The post-IPO low is $82.81.
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