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China's Starbucks officially connects to Alipay: later than Wechat, but there will be one eventually.

Published: 2026-04-04 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/04/04, Professional baristas please follow the news from the coffee workshop (official Wechat account cafe_style) on the morning of Sept. 25. Today, the official Weibo of Alipay said that it has officially reached a cooperation with Starbucks, and Alipay will access nearly 2800 Chinese mainland stores from now on. At the same time, Alipay announced that it will use Alipay in Starbucks stores on the mainland before October 15, 2017.

For professional baristas, please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

According to the news on the morning of Sept. 25, the official Weibo of Alipay announced that it has officially reached a cooperation with Starbucks, and Alipay will access nearly 2800 Chinese mainland stores from now on. At the same time, Alipay announced that before October 15, 2017, you can get a 5 yuan gift certificate for a single purchase of 50 yuan at Starbucks stores on the mainland, which can be used the next time you pay the bill.

Compared with WeChat Pay, who joined Starbucks as early as the end of last year, Alipay's access is "long overdue". A person familiar with the matter told Sina Technology that Alipay's "lateness" may be related to exclusive terms. Some industry insiders speculate that from the pace of cooperation between Alipay and Starbucks, WeChat Pay's exclusive period at Starbucks is estimated to be more than 6 months. Previously, only three Starbucks companies in the Ali office area could use Alipay.

However, the Chinese market has a very important position for Starbucks. Starbucks reported a 4 per cent increase in comparable global same-store sales in the third quarter of fiscal 2017, compared with 7 per cent growth in the Chinese market. In terms of revenue, the Asia-Pacific region, including China, grew by 9%, making it Starbucks's second-largest market.

The road of Starbucks' mobile payment in China is actually very slow. In 2012, Starbucks launched App in the Chinese market, while it was not until June 2015 that Starbucks launched a virtual star card.

In November 2015, Starbucks announced the trial opening of its flagship store at Tmall. This special Starbucks store mainly sells Starbucks / gift cards and various beverage coupons, which is the most formal cooperation between Alibaba and Starbucks before.

At the beginning of 2016, Starbucks staff meeting was held in Chengdu, and Jack Ma came to support Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, an "old friend". It is only at that time that it gave the outside world the impression that "Starbucks will cooperate with Alipay".

In December 2016, Tencent and Starbucks announced a partnership in Guangzhou, and WeChat Pay began to occupy a seat in Starbucks stores. However, Sina Technology recently searched for "Starbucks Mobile payment" on Weibo, and a considerable number of netizens in first-and second-tier cities said they could not use mobile payment in Starbucks yet.

FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou China, selling freshly roasted beans from its own farm in Yunnan as well as dozens of carefully selected single-origin beans from around the world for both pour-over and espresso. The products deliver consistently excellent quality and great value, with shipping within 24 hours. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers, and the beans are now available online at the Tmall 。