Facial-recognition payment about to hit new KFC stores

Speakers: Li Ningjing, Sam Duckett and Lu Sirui

The customer was about to touch the button saying “start facial recognition payment” on the screen. [Photo: from Baidu.com]

Alibaba's Ant Financial affiliate and KFC China have announced facial-recognition payment will be available for customers in the fast food restaurant chain's new KPRO store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Ant Financial has offered its facial recognition technology for four years in other services based on the online payment service Alipay. The integration of Alipay's "Smile to Pay" facial recognition payment solution at KFC enables customers to pay without the need to reach for their wallets.

To finish a payment at a KFC outlet, a customer who has an Alipay account can gaze at a 3D webcam that will take a picture and scan the customer's face. The information will be linked to an Alipay account for identification verification while payment information is shown on a display. A click to confirm will finish the payment process.

The integration of "Smile to Pay" at the new KPRO restaurant is the first commercial application of facial recognition payment technology globally.

The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI.