The future of payments may be staring us right in the face.
Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce giant with more money than it knows what to do with, is planning to introduce a facial recognition option called Smile to Pay that would let shoppers pay for purchases on their smartphones by scanning their faces.
"Online payment to buy things is always a big headache," Jack Ma, cofounder and chairman of Alibaba, said while demonstrating the new feature during a presentation at CeBIT conference in Hanover, Germany on Sunday. He highlighted concerns about passwords and security. "Today we show you a new technology in the future of how people can buy things online."
Jack Ma demonstrates the future of payment technology @cebit pic.twitter.com/PUQWyguRvc— Alizila.com (@Alizila) March 15, 2015
The demonstration comes at a time when large tech companies like Apple, Samsung and Google are all making a big push to crack mobile payments. Apple, for example, thinks the trick to popularizing mobile payments is the ease and security of fingerprint scanning. Apparently Alibaba has other ideas. We just hope they've thought through ways one might trick the scanner with a picture or representation of someone's face.
A rep for Alibaba told Mashable the feature is "still in development" with no firm launch date.
Alibaba raised $25 billion in its public offering in September, making it the largest IPO in history. The company has since invested in a series of prominent startups, including a reported $200 million investment in Snapchat, and begun to spread its roots to new markets like the United States.