When it comes to digital payments, China is ahead of the Western world. The most recent face recognition technology has been introduced by Alibaba’s Ant Financial in collaboration with KFC.
Now the customers can confirm their orders with a single smile. Smile-activated vending machines would not even require the use of a smartphone, should the client be already signed into the system. However, additional smartphone verification is available for security reasons.
The technology was first introduced during IFA in Germany. At those times, more than two years ago, it was less advanced but has already demonstrated similar functionality. Collaboration with KFC is not a coincidence. Alibaba owns a portion of Yum China, the company that operates Kentucky Fried Chicken network in China.
Alibaba aims at successfully combining the best practices from both online and offline retail. Smile-to-pay can be the next step in a chain of innovative digital payment solutions introduced by the company.
