Jack Ma's Alipay takes on WeChat's 'instant apps'

China's leading mobile payment app, Alipay, is trying to kill off apps too, reports TechInAsia

In China, smartphone apps have never felt more obsolete. WeChat, China’s most popular messaging app, hosts an overwhelming number of services inside itself: food delivery, ride-hailing, live streaming, and more. Now, China’s leading mobile payment app, Alipay, is trying to kill off apps too.
 

Like WeChat’s own instant apps, which launched in January, Alipay’s don’t require users to download anything. Instead, people scan a QR code to access them.

Alipay – run by Alibaba spin-off Ant Financial – opened up its mini programs system to developers at the end of August. 

For WeChat, mini programs are a way to rope in the