THE DOMESTIC ONLINE PAYMENT GIANT ALIPAY introduced a new product called "Circles" on Sunday, which invites users to join different social networks based on their registered information in Alipay. However, some users have reported finding large quantities of photos of scantily dressed young females in certain Circles pages. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

It is an undeniable fact that Alipay is a success in terms of its online payment business: it has 450 million users. However, its parent company Alibaba has been trying to expand by developing its own social networking app.

There is a good reason for Alipay to try introducing a social networking app because WeChat, the mainland's popular instant messaging app, has long been allowing its users to make payments with it and that's a challenge to Alipay. So it is natural for Alipay to try and fight back.