Wal-Mart Teams With Alibaba's Alipay

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday it is teaming with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to begin accepting the latter's Alipay mobile-payment system at its stores in southern China, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Customers at 25 of the U.S. retailer's stores in the southern city of Shenzhen are now able to pay using the Alibaba app, with more of the over 400 Wal-Mart stores in China to join the program soon, the report cited Wal-Mart as saying. While Wal-Mart reported a modest decline in its China sales for the fourth quarter of 2014, it nonetheless plans to expand its operations in the country, and the company said last month it intends to open another 115 stores in China by 2017. (Read more on U.S. companies' fortunes in the Chinese market here.)