In the payment battlefield, according to analysys data, in the third quarter of 2017, Alipay accounted for 53.73%, Tencent Finance accounted for 39.33%; In the market value battlefield, as of January 29, the data shows that Alibaba’s market value has broken 520 billion DOLLARS, while Tencent’s market value has broken 570 billion dollars; On the social battlefield, wechat has nearly 1 billion users, while Dingdingalso announced recently that its users exceeded 100 million. In terms of investments, Tencent made 125 deals last year, compared with 77 for Alibaba, according to IT Orange.
Even if the above data is only the tip of the iceberg, it also shows the intensity of the two horse battle at the top of the purple forbidden. In competition and infighting, the two horses jointly created the phenomenon of “AT two giants”. Interestingly, perhaps from the perspective of e-commerce, games, social networking and other fields, the friction between the two horses does not seem to be too great. At most, they can only send their younger brothers to solve problems. However, the field of head-to-head confrontation between Tencent with 2C gene and Ali with 2B gene cannot be avoided is finance. The direct conflict between wechat and Alipay was well known to users in 2017 with qr codes, red envelope subsidies and other tug of war, and so far, the war is still spreading.
In the aftermath of the first world War, mobile payments are still everywhere
The so-called war can be generally understood as offline mobile payment war, but it mainly stays on the shallow market share. In simple terms, it is to cultivate users’ payment habits, so as to increase user stickiness and improve the accuracy of predicting users’ payment behavior.
Last year, wechat and Alipay launched their own subsidy policies for red packets, and the game between the two sides also contributed to the further expansion of the penetration rate of mobile payment. According to the national bill of Alipay, mobile payments accounted for 82% in 2017, while the figure was only 71% in 2016.
With the further penetration and spread of mobile payment effect, the field of mobile payment can still be deeply dug, and wechat and Alipay will continue to work in the following aspects in the future.
First, underdeveloped regions with huge growth potential. ** According to the national bill of Alipay, xizang was the only province where mobile payment accounted for more than 90% in 2016, but it soared to 11 provinces in 2017, all of which are not highly developed. On the one hand, mobile phones, the carrier of mobile payment, are developing rapidly, and large-scale promotion activities of third-party payment tools have fully released the potential of mobile payment in this region. On the other hand, mobile payment is more convenient than PC payment, and the payment habit under the consumption upgrade has also been upgraded, thus increasing the proportion of mobile payment.
As the financial system in less developed regions is not perfect, and the influence of Internet finance with strong penetration capacity will be further expanded, Alipay and wechat only need to take advantage of the trend, and the increase of transaction share and transaction frequency can be said to be inevitable.
** Second, offline mobile payment scenarios with heavy traffic, such as public transportation systems. ** Last year, wechat Pay was successfully promoted to 12306. The data in July 2017 showed that the monthly active users of 12306APP reached 41.5686 million, which is a golden mountain of traffic. More than 30 cities are reported to have connected parts of their public transport systems with Alipay last year. From this point of view, wechat and Alipay have aimed at this potential scene, and in addition to railway, there are also buses, subways and so on in China’s large-scale offline scenes. These virgin land will become the new darling of mobile payment in the future.
** Third, small and medium-sized businesses. Ma Huateng repeatedly stressed last year that Tencent should have stronger 2B capabilities, not only because of Tencent’s expansion ambitions, but also because b-end big data resources can play a greater role in promoting future financial transactions. According to Alipay, 40 million small merchants in China used alipay payment codes in 2017, and that doesn’t include the percentage of merchants using personal payment codes. So this cake is what Tencent covets, but also what Alipay wants to guard.
Even so, the mark of the war between wechat and Alipay has been diluted a lot. On the one hand, because the red envelope subsidy has been normalized, such as alipay reward, so the enthusiasm of users needs to rely on new things to stimulate; On the other hand, the exploration path of wechat and Alipay for mobile payment is also changing. Technical integration and functional simplification have become the common topic of the next War, and the precursor of World War II is becoming more and more obvious.
Mobile payment convergence era, World War II coming?
The so-called mobile payment towards integration, from the depth of Alipay and wechat transport system. On January 1, 2018, Alipay launched the “Low-carbon Travel 100 Cities Plan” and made Xi ‘an its first stop, allowing users to enter and exit subway stations by scanning a code. In November, the guangzhou subway system was able to use wechat to pass through the subway gates.
Despite the onslaught, wechat and Alipay have taken over many cities’ transportation systems, but both have been limited to mobile payment as a single point of action, merely helping users to add a way to pay. However, scanning code is different from taking a bus. The way of directly entering and exiting the station or taking a bus through scanning code can be understood as one-stop service, which shows that mobile payment is undergoing integration and has the following two characteristics.
** First, the efficiency of consumption behavior has changed qualitatively. ** The reason is that traditional subway cars need at least three steps: buying a ticket, swiping a card to get in and out of the station. However, the current code scanning bus service directly reduces this process to code scanning, which undoubtedly improves the efficiency of this consumption behavior and greatly improves the user experience. This is actually a feature of technology’s empowerment. Technology simplifies the intermediate stages of consumption without affecting the experience, thus increasing the transaction speed of the entire consumption process.
If you think about it, scanning the subway already has a reference — shared bikes. At present, shared bikes are also a quick operation mode of scanning the code and riding and paying the bill afterwards. This is the significance of scanning the subway. Simplifying the intermediate process can fully improve the low efficiency of the process of public transport.
** Secondly, payment is weakened and service is strengthened. ** The original purpose of scanning code may be to pay, but now the purpose of scanning code is to enter the station, and is the first step for users to use the transportation service, this reform makes users more focused on the ride service itself. What’s more, ex post checkout methods like bike-sharing distract users from mobile payment behavior.
Compared with the behavior of separate payment before the original bus, mobile payment has obviously been separated from the ticket machine, is stored in wechat and Alipay, into a square qr code. The weakening of payment also indicates that the service in the consumption process is enhanced, which is good for users.
Why did wechat and Alipay launch the technology to scan the code and take the subway? First, scanning code has both payment and check-in functions, which can further obtain big data of consumer travel and optimize related services. Secondly, there is more than one service process in public transport travel, so there is more space for technology to be optimized. Third, the cost of acquiring customers is low in the scene of offline heavy traffic.
In any case, the combination of payment and entry in scanning bus has the property of one-stop. Due to the continuous iteration of science and technology and people’s pursuit of convenience and efficiency, mobile payment will continue to integrate with other service content and derive more and more efficient consumption methods. Data suggest that airports, where traffic flows are more complex, could be involved in a similar way in the future.
In other words, this kind of one-stop service embedded with mobile payment will open up more offline scenes in the future, and in this new competition, wechat and Alipay will still go head-to-head again, then this battle compared with the previous red envelope subsidy war, what are the new game points?
The second World War is on the verge of breaking out
During World War I, wechat and Alipay fought over the priority of users’ mobile payment portals. Now, subway, airport and other high-traffic offline scenes are like a huge testing ground, wechat and Alipay may launch a game from three perspectives in the future.
** First, in the game of technology versus service iteration, the more efficient one wins. ** In the era of financial technology, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies continue to make progress. In terms of transportation, the game of technology mainly focuses on travel efficiency and travel experience. Judging from the initial reform of scanning code for riding, wechat and Alipay will further focus on optimizing ride experience in the future. For example, when biometric technology such as face scanning technology is mature, artificial intelligence technology can be used to assist users to ride, or even to let users directly get on the bus without entering the station. In Sweden, for example, companies are implanting technology into people to make it easier to get around.
Like the previous Alipay proposed “such as shadow plan” is also based on the blueprint of these technologies. As the mobile payment link is the core of the transaction and cannot be eliminated, it can only be simplified or integrated through technology. However, many scenarios in the field of transportation can be tested by wechat and Alipay in the future. On this basis, whoever can develop a more efficient or satisfying way to travel will dominate the future mobile payment market.
** Second, “ground push” speed game. The first mover advantage, or fast market penetration, is often what is being cultivated. Although China has numerous transportation scenarios by city, cultivating users’ payment habits should be the first step in commercialization. Even WeChat and pay treasure now won’t fight, but developed cities because of the demographic factors and economic factors such as more attractive, will still be the first choice of the WeChat and pay treasure to expand, although WeChat and pay treasure to the next site temporarily won’t repeat, soup of the day, but when want to points may present the solid fat early, less likely to happen a presumptuous guest usurps the host’s role.
This means that, different from World War I, wechat and Alipay in World War II needed to grab the city’s right to be first mover and set up barriers in advance. On the one hand, they could stabilize the land and establish deeper emotional connections with users. On the other hand, it is also conducive to the consolidation of their strong position, temporarily in an invincible position.
Third, the game of market education. ** Alipay in Xi ‘an is also supplemented with preferential activities to educate users in accordance with promotion practices. For example, users can take a bus this month and pay back the money next month, and can also enjoy a random discount. As scan code ride is a breakthrough new service, so the education of users is a very important prelude, and subsidies and other ways can be regarded as a quick way to break the barrier of habit. The best example of this is that wechat gained a large number of users by sprinkling red envelopes to subsidize the offline scene of Alipay.
What is clear is that wechat and Alipay are doing well in different big cities, even if they are currently playing their own separate games. However, since public transport is a livelihood service, they must pay attention to users’ satisfaction with the new service. A slight mistake may damage the existing brand goodwill.
In a word, from the lingering world War I to the imminent World War II, the friction between wechat and Alipay is still continuing. If the world War I is fought for itself, then the world War II is fought for users. In this war, whoever can make users travel more comfortable will win.
Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110