QQ for Mac?

According to some reports circulating in the Chinese media, Tencent is rumored to be launching a Mac version of their popular instant messaging service and social network - QQ.

I am not sure if this is true or not, or whether there is enough demand for QQ services on the Mac. I would like to hope, however, that they can first get QQ to work properly on an English version of Windows XP before starting to work on the MacOS.

We have previously covered QQ in our report titled Virtual Currencies in China: Q Coins, Gold Farms, and Real Money Trades.

We have also covered Tencent's payment arm, Tenpay, in one of our latest third-party payment profiles titled Tenpay - Riding the QQ Freight Train.

Beijing Aims for Octopus but Growth Still at a Snail's Pace

Last August we noted the partnership between payment terminal supplier Blue Bamboo and payment provider Kpay/Kuaipay to establish a payment network for Beijing's popular Yikatong contactless transit card (also sometimes called "SuperPass").

Uptake of Yikatong cards in the last several years has been excellent; last September, the authority in charge of Yikatong, the Beijing Municipal Administration & Communications Card Co. Ltd. (BMAC), announced that over 13 million cards had been issued and approximately 15,000 new cards were being issued every single day. As penetration approaches 100% among Beijing's nearly 18 million residents, this growth pace will decline, but we do believe the number of Yikatong cards has already surpassed 15 million to date.

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TIF Forum: Mobile Payments in China & the Asia Pacific

We recently made a presentation about mobile payments in China at a forum hosted by our friends at TRP and KPMG. We'd like to offer a special thanks to Peter Lovelock and his team for organizing! A copy of our presentation is available below.

Please feel free to contact us for questions or comments.

Fixed-line Subs Drop by 1.47 Million in February

The drop in fixed-line subscribers has slowed down somewhat since January 2008 and after a nosedive in December 2007. China Telecom reported a net loss of 1.02 million subscribers, down from 1.22 million last month. China Netcom reported a net loss of 450,000 subs, down from 765,000 in the previous month.

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Jet Li to Partner with Alipay?

Kung Fu legend Jet Li has recently visited Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou for the sixth anniversary of Alibaba's instant messenger, Chengxintong. Jack Ma gave Jet Li a personal tour of the premises and speculation has risen for the visit's purpose.

Some sites such as www.20ju.com and www.qihoo.com are speculating that Jet Li may be talking about a partnership between his charity fund (the One Foundation ) and Alipay. Jet Li has already partnered with Tenpay, Tencent's payment subsidiary. Tenpay's users, however, are mostly young and fashionable teens who use Tencent's QQ services, while Alipay, in contrast, may bring in older users with higher expendable incomes who are more likely to donate, as some forums posters suggest.

However, these are still all rumors and speculations at this stage.

Challenges Facing Mobile Top-up in China

While mobile top-up has a lot going for it, the fact remains that it has not caught on yet. We see several factors behind this:

While all major MPSPs above offer mobile top-up transactions, few are promoting it. Smartpay and YeePay are the only two that have paid much attention to top-ups, and both of them deal primarily with China Unicom, by far the smaller of China's two mobile operators. UMPay, a joint-venture between China Mobile and bank card network operator China UnionPay (and thus the best positioned of all MPSPs to work with China Mobile), has yet to show much interest in promoting mobile top-up to China Mobile's 225 million prepaid subscribers.

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MII, NDRC Drop Roaming Rates

Roaming has been a hot topic in China for the past few months, and just weeks ago the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) jointly announced that roaming rates would be lowered starting on March 1. The move came about in large part due to increasing consumer complaints about the high fees for cross-province calls.

We at Maverick China Research are partnering with IIR for the Roaming World Congress 2008, which will be held April 21-24 in Vienna. Click here for more information.

Alipay Account Assets Frozen by Shanghai Court

According to this article, on the request of an advertisement company, an online apparel sale company's Alipay account was frozen by a court in Shanghai as part of a contract dispute. This is one of the first times a Chinese court has successfully take action on online virtual assets.

After the request was raised, a person in the court left for Alipay's headquarters to freeze the account (with the help of Alipay).

Because users can deposit money in make online payments through an Alipay account, it has some of the characteristics of a bank account. This ruling shows that for legal disputes, Alipay accounts can also be treated as bank accounts and "frozen".

Fixed-line Subs Drop by 2 Million in January

The drop in fixed-line subscribers has slowed down somewhat after a nosedive in December 2007, with China Telecom reporting a net loss of 1.22 million subscribers and China Netcom a total of 765,000.

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How Top-up will Drive M-Payment Growth in China

Mobile top-up allows users to add value to their mobile accounts without having to purchase top-up cards, which are most often found at supermarkets, convenience stores, and newsstands. More than any other product or service currently in development, mobile top-up has all the ingredients to become the driving force behind m-payment adoption in China.

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