Is Alipay the earliest mobile payment in China?

Mobile payment has appeared before the emergence of smartphones. The earliest mobile payment in China appeared in 1999. At that time, China Mobile cooperated with financial departments such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Merchants Bank to start pilot mobile payment services in some provinces and cities such as Guangdong. In 2002, UnionPay launched the first-generation mobile payment model, which completed transactions through SMS interaction and enabled various services such as mobile phone bill inquiry and payment. On February 27, 2008, Alipay released its mobile e-commerce strategy and launched mobile payment services. Therefore, Alipay was not the first mobile payment company in China.