If you have any second doubts about PayPal — no longer. Yes, it is a bit DHS-ish when it comes to verifying your personal data — but that’s supposedly to keep you (and your money) safe. Behind the PR lingo, it’s official: Beginning today, April 26, 2010 (05:30 in the morning if you want more precision), PayPal now works with Alibaba. There’s also escrow and instant purchases (AliExpress) in this.

It hasn’t been a smooth ride — as in Alibaba and PayPal — and there were even mentions of potential scams a while back. Still, the new service, in the form of the AliExpress website, targets small to medium-sized retails and wholesales outside of China who want to source products from companies in the city, according to Alibaba Hong Kong spokeswoman Linda Kozlowski.

It’s funny how the two are working out now, given that there’s a fair bit of competition between the two companies as well as eBay, who actually owns PayPal. Taobao, an Alibaba consumer e-commerce and auction website wildly popular in China, is king in Chinese cyberspace — at the expense of eBay. How the partnership between the two remains to be seen, reports Computerworld.

阿里巴巴通過「AliExpress」站點正式開放使用 PayPal 以付賬之服務，全球速賣通平台使用者將可通過 PayPal 付款。今日正式推出起，使用者可按本身小本經營需要下單，並提供包括小批量訂單保障買賣雙方利益之第三方信用擔保等之服務。