E-commerce giant Alibaba has demonstrated an app that will allow shoppers to use selfies as authentication when using a mobile to make payments. Alibaba founder Jack Ma used the annual CeBit event in Hanover, Germany, to show off the app.

It approves mobile payments by matching a photo taken by the user at the point of purchase to a stored profile photo. He said Smile to Pay, as it is known, will be rolled out in China first, and later in other countries.

“Online payment to buy things is always a big headache”, said Ma. “You forget your password, you worry about the security”. The app is being developed by Alipay operator Ant Financial, which completes 80 million transactions a day from its 300 million registered users.

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