KFC customers in the Eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou can now pay for their meals with just a smile.
Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, has long planned on launching facial recognition technology for the company’s payment app, Alipay. He first revealed his commitment to the development of this technology at a CeBit Conference in 2015, when he used it to purchase a gift for the Mayor of Hanover as a demonstration.
It was reported then that Alibaba was to make the technology public in 2017.
The two-year delay between Ma’s first demonstration and the establishment of this testing site is presumably due to Alibaba’s desire to perfect the facial recognition technology, which is, at this point, highly sophisticated. The modules used to examine a customer’s face can tell the difference between a mask and an actual human face, as well as recognize a particular customer, despite any makeup or hair alterations they might have.
The KFC in Hangzhou which is currently being used as a testing site for the new technology is actually a K Pro store, which is marketed toward health-conscious Chinese millennial consumers. As such, its menu includes such items as salads, juices, and Paninis.
Why test facial recognition technology in a Chinese KFC, of all places?
KFC enjoys a rare position in mainland China as foreign company that has successfully broken into the much-coveted Chinese market. In fact, on September 7th, Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower turned red to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fast-food chain’s ventures in the Middle Kingdom.
The company is also a subsidiary of Yum China, an Alibaba investment that also holds exclusive rights in mainland China to Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
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