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Perk Labs Announces Agreement with Alipay

Thursday, 05 March 2020 08:30 AM

Perk Labs Inc.

VANCOUVER, CANADA / ACCESSWIRE / March 5, 2020 / Perk Labs Inc. (formerly Glance Technologies Inc.) (CSE:PERK)(OTCQB:PKLBF)(FKT:GJT) ("Perk Labs" or the "Company"), the parent company of Perk Hero, the all-in-one mobile ordering, payment and customer loyalty platform, is pleased to announce that Perk Hero has signed an agreement with Alipay to enable Alipay users to make payments on the Company's payment platform and will be harmonizing its QR codes to enable Alipay payment at Perk Hero merchants.

Perk Labs Inc., Thursday, March 5, 2020, Press release picture

"This arrangement will appeal to Chinese visitors who would like to use Alipay as their preferred payment method while travelling and living abroad," said the Company's CEO Jonathan Hoyles. "It will also add value to our merchants, who will be better positioned to benefit from a massive, new base of Alipay users who represent increased foot traffic, spending power and revenue. It's a great win-win."

"We are looking forward to enabling more of our valued users to use Alipay QR codes at Perk Hero merchants in Canada. This provides a familiar method of payment for Chinese users in Canada, connecting them with valued local merchants," said Steve Yulei Wang, General Manager, Alipay, North America.

In 2013, Alipay overtook PayPal as the world's largest mobile payment platform, with 900 million Alipay users as of June 2019, many of whom are part of a rapidly growing Chinese middle class that enjoys shopping, dining out and visiting tourist attractions. This translates to millions of Chinese Alipay users visiting Canada and the U.S. each year as tourists, students and migrants.

In 2018, Destination Canada reported that China was Canada's largest source of tourist arrivals from the Asia-Pacific region, the second-largest long-haul market and largest for spend. Canada welcomed a record 737,000 Chinese tourists in 2018, surpassing the 700,000 mark for the first time, and doubling the number of annual travelers since 2013, with an average annual growth rate of 16%.

In the U.S., in 2018 there were 2.9 million visitors from China, according to the country's National Travel and Tourism Office. Experts say the tourism industry must do more to keep up with changing needs of Chinese travelers.

Chinese tourists - particularly younger ones - are increasingly planning trips using apps rather than booking tours through traditional agencies and they have also enthusiastically adopted smartphone-based payment systems. By the same token, statistics show older Chinese tourists drive mobile payments on holiday overseas. According to tourism experts, destinations should invest in these technologies now if they want to continue attracting Chinese tourists.1

"Alipay will help our merchants to leverage this new and ever expanding global marketing channel and Super App," said Hoyles. "Through Alipay, our merchants can market to Chinese tourists and visitors living abroad, boosting exposure of their businesses amongst Alipay's extensive user base."

About Perk Labs

Perk Labs Inc. is the owner of Perk Hero, a digital loyalty management platform that enables merchants to provide their customers with digital rewards and a more engaging and convenient customer experience. For more information about Perk Labs, please visit www.perklabs.io

About Alipay

Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world's leading payment and lifestyle platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently serves over 1 billion users with its local e-wallets partners and works with over 200 domestic financial institution partners. Over the years, Alipay has evolved in China from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users in China can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Alipay's in-store payment service covers over 50 countries and regions across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 35 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese visitors travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently supports 27 currencies.

For more information, contact:

Jonathan Hoyles
Chief Executive Officer
833-338-0299
[email protected]

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "may", "believe", "thinks", "expect", "exploring", "expand", "could", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "pursue", "potentially", "projected", "should", "will" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. These forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, relate to, among other things, the discussion of Perk Labs' business strategies and its expectations concerning future operations. Although Perk Labs considers these forward-looking statements to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements in this press release, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the most recent Annual Information Form and Prospectus of Perk Labs, which may be accessed through Perk Labs' profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Perk Labs cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by Perk Labs is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking information, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur.

  1. South China Morning Post

SOURCE: Perk Labs Inc.

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Company Update
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