Paypal and the Chongqing municipal government agreed to jointly set up an international e-commerce hub Tuesday, marking the company's first wholly owned subsidiary in China.
    Users will be able to pay for cross-border online shopping transactions after the foundation of the foreign exchange settlement platform.
    The two sides also agreed to create five international e-commerce centers over the next few months, each dealing with verification, investment promotion, national telesales, mercantile training and regional business development, respectively.
    The city's mayor, Huang Qifan, said the deal with Paypal "will help Chongqing become China's settlement center for international e-commerce" and "will also contribute to Chongqing becoming the financial services center of west China," according to AFP.
   "It will also largely increase the capital stocks in local banks, as more money flows into the city," said a staff member at the Chongqing branch of China Construction Bank.
   As more foreign companies cash in on the country's fast-growing Internet sales market, transaction volumes for China's online payment market may hit 1 trillion yuan ($151 billion) for the full year, according to Analysys International.
   Currently, Alibaba Group, which is seen as Paypal's main potential competitor, dominates the Chinese online payment market with a share of 50.5 percent, according to figures from Analysys.
   "Paypal's main target audience is small and medium-sized enterprises, while Alipay's dominant business is personal services," the chief of public relations for Taobao, another Alibaba subsidiary, told the Global Times on condition of anonymity.

                                                                                               Source: Global Times