Alipay Uses Technology to Create Social Impact

Alipay released its second sustainability report on May 20 in Beijing. The report is titled “Moving towards a better society for the future”, and lists the company’s initiatives and achievements from 2017 and 2018 that had positive social impacts.

SEE ALSO: Alipay Expanded Cover Range in Japan

Planting trees

Alipay’s green initiative, Alipay Ant Forest, accessible through the Alipay app, had 500 million users to take part in low-carbon activities such as cycling and paying bills online, generating “green energy” points as they do so. This resulted in more than 100 million real trees being planted in China’s arid regions, as of April 2019.

Supporting Small Businesses

Alipay also helped support a number of small businesses to break into their respective industries by their service MYbank, an online bank under Ant Financial. MYbank provides inclusive financial services to over 12 million out of the 90 million unbanked and underbanked small businesses in China.

Providing health plans

The company provides a basic health plan for its users online mutual aid platform Xiang Hu Bao. While Xiang Hu Bao is not an insurance product, it complements other premium health insurance offerings in the market by lowering the barrier to obtain a basic health plan. As of April 2019, Xiang Hu Bao had served more than 50 million users. 31% of Xiang Hu Bao’s users were from rural and county level regions, and 47% were migrant workers.

Facilitating Donations

As of the end of 2018, the Alipay Love Donation Platform had facilitated 1.18 billion individual donations, helping over 1,400 NGOs and philanthropic organizations raise proceeds for charitable causes.

Featured Image Source: ctoutiao