With the continuous development of information technology, mobile payment has penetrated into all areas of life and has become an indispensable part of our lives. When it comes to mobile payment, the first thing we think of is Alipay and WeChat payment. So, who are the more popular payment giants in the market, and what is the market share?
On the evening of March 30, iResearch, a third-party organization, released a report on the scale of mobile payment transactions in the fourth quarter of 2019. Data shows that Alipay's market share has grown for three consecutive quarters, and its proportion has continued to expand to 55.1%, ranking firmly in the lead. The second is Tencent Tenpay (including WeChat Pay), but its market share dropped by 0.6%, currently 38.9%, One Wallet ranked third with a market share of 1.4%.
The total share of Alipay and Tencent Tenpay reached 94%
From the overall view of the mobile payment market in the fourth quarter of 2019, Alipay and Tencent Tenpay accounted for a combined share of 94%, and Alipay has an absolute lead. It is reported that throughout 2019, Alipay has taken a big step forward in its original advantages, and its market share has risen for three consecutive quarters, further opening the gap with Tencent Tenpay (including WeChat Pay), which is ranked second. The current market share is equivalent to 1.4 times that of WeChat.
Some professionals believe that Alipay can achieve continuous growth in 2019, and it is also related to Alipay's own multi-dimensional development. It is understood that in 2019, Alipay has made great investments in bus travel, sharing bicycles, mini programs, and membership systems to increase user stickiness. Although the data for the first quarter of 2020 has not yet been published, as of now Alipay has released a number of major moves and launched health codes during the epidemic. Recently, many governments have begun to issue "consumer coupons". On March 10, Alipay announced its payment platform was upgraded to an open platform for digital life, and then the "City Life Week" was launched. What’s more, Alipay also changes its looks. The new version is bluer than before, which is really eye-catching.
With more than 1.1 billion users in hand, why can't WeChat Pay beat Alipay?
From the data currently released, it can been seen that Tencent's mobile payment is still in the second-tier camp. Many netizens have such doubts: there are nearly 1.2 billion WeChat active users and more than 600 million QQ users, why Tencent's Tenpay cannot beat Alipay?
The author believes that although Tencent has 1.2 billion WeChat active users, it is still far inferior to Alipay in terms of application scenarios and functions. Taking the well-known "Huabei" as an example, it can be overdrawn and paid in installments, which is popular with young people. WeChat will also introduce "distribution", but after we get used to "Huabei", there is no more favorable distribution and it is not attractive.
In addition, in contrast, users trust Alipay more. Everyone likes to send a red envelope and the group collection through WeChat, but how many people will store a large amount of money in WeChat? According to the author, when involving large amounts of transactions, users will still choose Alipay. More importantly, the functional coverage of Alipay is full-scale, which covers takeout, mobile phone recharge, living payment, sending and receiving courier, etc. The data shows that from 2015 to 2019, the number of urban services on the Alipay has increased about 4 times in 4 years, with a total of 600 million users working on Alipay.
On the whole, Alipay has left Tencent's WeChat behind with only intimate, practical and comprehensive functions. Therefore, even with 1.1 billion active users, WeChat Pay cannot beat Alipay.
Finally, according to iResearch data, the scale of China's third-party mobile payment transactions reached 59.8 trillion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2019, with a year-on-year growth rate of 13.42%. This shows that China's mobile payment scenario coverage is still increasing. In the future, there may be a fierce competition for Alipay and WeChat Pay in the mobile payment market! It remains to be seen what the outcome will be.
This is an article from Toutiao, written by Tech Qingbaoju, translated by Chris Yuan.