Microsoft's Todd Brix, talking about the new payment system on the Microsoft Windows Phone Developer Blog:
A big aspect of this release is the introduction of new payment options available to customers in China. To date, the only payment option available for Windows Phone app purchase has been international credit cards. With Windows Phone 8, we now enable customers to purchase apps and games with local credit cards and debit cards as well as Alipay, which is a very popular payment option (with functionality similar to that in PayPal) in China with over 800 million registered accounts. Windows Phone Store is the first major smartphone OS app store to support Alipay for store purchase transactions and given the popularity of Alipay this provides a potential for a substantial increase in purchase transactions.
The inclusion of Alipay is a vital one for the third party app ecosystem in China. With over 800 million accounts Alipay is used for many online payments by users who may not hold an internationally accepted credit card. Alipay in the Windows Store should make the payment process easier for the expected rush of Windows Phone users in 2013 as manufacturers look to China for volume sales.
The Nokia Lumia 920t is one chiense device that will benefit from these changes.
Other changes worth pointing out in the store include the addition of a 'Sold by' field (to work alongside Microsoft's partnerships with MSN China, Sina, and Tencent), local contact details for support and issues around the applications, Xbox Live support is now turned on, and the integration of Sina Weibo into the People hub (which we've looked at previously).
More details can be found on Microsoft's blogs here (Alipay details) and here (for the Windows Store changes).