How can I accept online payments from China?

December 2, 2010 1:27 AM

I'm setting up a website with WordPress. I'd like to offer site visitors the chance to pay for premium content. The site is aimed mainly at people in East Asia (mainly China). Do you know any systems which would accept payments in Chinese currency? Also, any thoughts on how accepting Chinese internet users would be to the idea of paying for digital content online?
posted by wyn to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

I get the feeling this is going to become a bit complicated with weird conditionals that may be contingent upon where you're based, but here's what I can dig up.

I've used s2Member to set up a pay wall for a client. It's currently integrated only with PayPal.com(they seem to have a completely isolated version at paypal.cn for Chinese transactions), but I found a comment in the forum from the developer that he's been beta-testing integration with other payment processors, including something called alipay specifically for China. That was back in September. I don't know the status of it, since it just doesn't apply to my needs, but you might register there and start a thread inquiring. I've found him pretty responsive.

Now, a search for alipay in the WP directory turns up this plugin, which seems to integrate with another payment processor that supports Chinese transactions. I don't know anything about them or the plugin itself, though, so that's just FYI not a recommendation.
posted by Su at 2:54 AM on December 2, 2010

There's Alipay, the digital paying system linked with Taobao which practically all the younger Internet users I know are happy to shop on; can't really speak as to whether they'd pay for digital content as opposed to physical stuff.
posted by Abiezer at 5:59 AM on December 2, 2010

Follow-up to my mention of s2Member before: The Pro version of the plugin($69) already supports integration with Alipay "Buy Now" buttons. I was using the free one, but just purchased a license. So you may have some more incentive to inquire with the dev.
posted by Su at 12:06 PM on December 2, 2010