If you know what PayPal mean to eBay, then you’ll know the importance of Alipay to Taobao, a site owned by Alibaba. Alipay just announced that it will not permit the Firefox users to access its secure Web page and process the payment after this August 15. The main reason is that information layout on the Alipay site can’t be authenticated via Firefox browser, and the Opera browser as well. It is therefore, the Firefox users need to download an add-on, i.e. IE tab in order to continue using the Alipay system, as shown on this page (in Mandarin). I’m just wonder, for a site to succeed in the market, should Alibaba set up some restrictions on the site that tend to turn away the users who loved the Firefox or Opera. Some Chinese users believed this move will also bring the negative impact on the Linux users that Firefox browser is pre-installed in the Linux operating system.

Meanwhile, Alipay management seem very confident that their request for the IE browser in order to use its system will only bring about a dramatic increase in trading volume. With the strategic partnership between Yahoo! and Alibaba, and we know Yahoo! has released its own customized version of Internet Explorer (IE), it’s not surprise that Alibaba is now backing the use of IE on Alipay.