Universal Studios plans to develop a "smart park" with Ant Financial Services

The author recently learned that Universal Studios and Ant Financial plan to cooperate to develop a "smart park" project, allowing tourists to use mobile devices to connect to all entertainment consumption services of the amusement park. Details of the cooperation will be announced in the near future.

The author recently learned that Universal Studios and Ant Financial plan to cooperate to develop a "smart park" project, allowing tourists to use mobile devices to connect to all entertainment consumption services of the amusement park. Details of the cooperation will be announced in the near future.

According to reports,"Smart Park" is a park project based on the concept of mobile applications, which aims to allow tourists to enjoy a more convenient and personalized garden experience. Among them, Ant Financial will be responsible for the implementation of mobile intelligence technology and provide technical solutions including Face Recognition, mobile payment, O2O and other technical solutions. According to the project's vision, tourists can enjoy the entire Universal Studios Park with just a smartphone or even a swipe of their face.

As the first step in cooperation, the two parties will take the lead in providing tourists with services such as Alipay ticket purchase, O2O consumption, and smart maps to avoid queues. At present, Universal Studios in Singapore has been fully connected to Alipay. Since the Golden Week of National Day, tourists from all over the world can easily experience the convenience and speed brought by the "Smart Park".

Universal Studios is one of the three major international theme parks. The cooperation with Ant Financial aims to accelerate the deployment of mobile entertainment. Mobilizing entertainment consumption has become a global trend, and Disney has taken steps to expand in this field. Last year, Disney announced a $1 billion investment to develop the MyMagic+ system, allowing users to realize the entire mobile interactive experience of Disneyland with wearable devices.

On the other hand, in the face of Shanghai Disneyland, which is about to open, Universal Studios also needs more countermeasures to deal with its possible impact. In recent years, China's theme park market has risen rapidly and has become a highground for several major park giants.

At present, Alipay, a subsidiary of Ant Financial, is a world-renowned mobile payment platform with 400 million real-name users. Since the beginning of this year, Ant Financial has increased its efforts to expand globalization. Peng Yijie, president of Ant Financial International Business Department, previously revealed that Alipay will fully cover major application scenarios such as food, housing, transportation, travel, entertainment, purchase, and tax refund overseas. This cooperation with Universal Studios is an important part of its layout of mobile entertainment application scenarios, marking that Alipay's internationalization offensive is now fully rolled out.

Looking back at Ant Financial's overseas expansion this year, it is not difficult to find its faster and faster growth momentum. Currently, overseas, there are more than 30000 offline merchants connected to Alipay. In August this year, Alipay and Sasha reached a strategic cooperation to support Alipay payments in all 100 Sasha stores in Hong Kong. Just one week later, it was announced that by the end of next year, more than 4300 hotels under Marriott Hotels Group would accept Alipay payments. There is also confirmed news that in South Korea, Lotte Theme Park will also connect to Alipay in the near future to seize the increasingly popular China tourists. Moreover, Lotte and Alipay are about to launch a major cooperation in the Myeongdong business district in Seoul during the Golden Week of the National Day, when most Myeongdong merchants will launch special discounts for Alipay users. There is also a Hong Kong area where many Alipay outbound travel projects are currently implemented. Naturally, there is a large wave of exclusive activities for Alipay users during the Golden Week.

According to Ant Financial's plan, in the next five years, its Alipay will cover 1 million overseas merchants in mainstream countries and regions that are popular with outbound tourists, and will serve 100 million outbound tourists.

Editor: vian