The digital payment battle in HK

Alipay, WeChat Pay among competitors in market dominated by Octopus, credit cards

For years, China's twin pillars of digital payment - billionaire Jack Ma Yun's Alipay and Tencent's WeChat Pay - have been branching out worldwide to chase the more than 130 million big-spending mainland holidaymakers who have become a common sight across the globe, including Hong Kong.

As the two payment giants raise the stake in their battle for bigger overseas market shares, Hong Kong has naturally become the "first stop" to localize their payment apps, which secure a combined 94 percent overseas mobile payment market share of the world's second-largest economy.