(Yicai Global]) Aug. 16 -- China's e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s [NYSE:BABA] third party payment service, Alipay, agreed to work with American review and reservation platform operator Yelp Inc. [NYSE:YELP] to provide millions of Chinese tourists a way to search for and book local services abroad.

Alipay said these services were put into operation yesterday, and are available for its users in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco. The services will be available in other countries and cities this year, Sina Finance reported.

Chinese travelers will be able to look for merchants, view reviews and pay some vendors in yuan through Alipay. Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay's developer, aims to actively expand its overseas services and adapt to growth in the number of outbound Chinese tourists.

Chinese tourists will make more than 4 million trips to North America this year, per industry estimates.

Yelp was founded in 2004, and its website covers restaurants, shopping malls, hotels and tourism. Yelp users can score merchants, submit reviews and exchange shopping experiences.

Alipay entered into an agreement with American payment processing company First Data Corp. [NYSE:FDC] to bring the Alipay payment function to over 4 million US-based merchants in May, putting them in direct competition with Apple Inc.'s [NYSE:AAPL] Apple Pay.