A boy looks at a cat at the 7th Universal Cat Association exhibition held in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on July 4, 2020. [Photo/Sipa]

Chinese mobile payment giant Alipay's insurance platform has open-sourced noseprint recognition technology to use it on the company's newly launched pet insurance, according to Alipay.

The insurance, jointly launched with China Continent Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd and ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co Ltd, is currently available for dogs and cats aged three months to 10 years old.

Pet's noseprints are similar to human fingerprints in that they are unique.

With the technology, Alipay's insurance platform can create an exclusive electronic file for each pet based on its noseprint and use the information to verify a pet's identity before completing a claim.

According to Alipay, the success rate of pet noseprint recognition technology exceeds 99 percent and is expected to be applied to urban pet management and lost pets in the future.

According to a white paper on China's pet business published by Chinese pet industry website goumin.com, urban consumption in the pet market in China reached 202.4 billion yuan ($29 billion) in 2019.