Alipay, Alibaba’s cashless mobile payment platform is the preferred mode of payment in China. It handles more than half of China’s $15.5 trillion payments market.

However, Alipay is also accepted in more than 54 countries and regions worldwide, a fact that many Chinese people are not aware of.

To communicate this fact to Chinese people, an awareness campaign is needed. Through the Alipay app, we want Chinese people to know that they can use it as a cash replacement when travelling out of China.

If there’s one thing that people would be very caution of, it’d be the safety and security of their payments. Facial recognition is an added layer of security on Alipay. We utilised this feature.

On the other hand, we realized that most if not all bank notes have picture of an iconic and/or historical person on them (Queen Elizabeth – British Pound, Benjamin Franklin - US Dollar, etc.).

By using Facial Recognition to scan more than 100 spots on the users’ faces, we are able to match their face with those that are on bank notes of the many different countries.

It was released in the Alipay APP, which targets Alipay's 400 million users online.

And also it was exhibited in the Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference 2018, which is one of the most anticipated events for China’s tech industry. In September 2018, more than 120,000 people descended on Hangzhou, the Alibaba headquarters to participate. In attendance were tech enthusiasts from China and worldwide.

In attendance were tech enthusiasts from China and worldwide. There were more than 1000+ products and booths across the conference, including hundreds of technical sessions and forums.

Face Value was launched during this period at the Alipay booth display.

Face Value was launched as a digital activation during the Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference in 2018.

The game resides in the Alipay app. Utilising Facial Recognition Technology principles, the app compares more than 100 spots on the face with similar data on bank notes and identifying the closest possible match. All the user need to do is to take a selfie and upload it on Alipay.

As added incentive, everyday, the closest match wins the value of the bank note which in turn can be used in the destination country.

What was initially a short online activation was extended indefinitely because of the great response received. Till date (Apr 2019), the game is still available on Alipay.

There were more than 20 million plays in the first 2 months and RMB20,000,000 given away during the promotion period.

There is greater awareness of Alipay being used outside of China by Chinese travellers.