The annual IT & Digital Business expo CeBIT 2015 takes place from March 16-20 in Hannover Messe. Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of the Alibaba Group, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, open CeBIT 2015 on Sunday, March 15.
Watch his speech below (from YouTube):
Jack Ma at the end of his speech demoed Alibaba’s face recognition technology for mobile payment starting at the 1:17:45 mark.
China has been selected as the official Partner Country for CeBIT 2015. During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Germany at the end of March, China and Germany agreed to make 2015 the year of “innovation cooperation” between the two countries.
There is no word on when Alibaba will launch the application based on its face recognition technology. The transaction volume and value of mobile payment in China were 4.524 billion and RMB22.59 trillion (US$3.66 trillion) with YoY growth rate of 170.25% and 134.30% respectively in 2014 in China according to People’s Bank of China.
Read more: Insights of China Mobile Payment (Wechat, Alipay) Users