Maverick China Research - Maverick China Research
Free Remittance Through Alipay
A famous Chinese magazine called My Money, has recently published an article telling its readers how to save money on bank remittance fees by using China's leading third-party payment provider - Alipay.
While usual remittance fees in China amount to around 1% of funds transfered, using Alipay allows bank account holders to save significant sums.
My Money suggests using the following method:
Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger on Payments
I have noticed more and more politicians are picking up on the potential for alternative payments in helping the poor, with words like "unbanked" and "underbanked" increasingly replacing other euphemisms such as "underprivileged" and "disadvantaged". Recently former US President Bill Clinton and current California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger jointly published an op-ed piece entitled "Beyond Payday Loans" in the Wall Street Journal:
The Beginning of M-Payment Consolidation in China?
In August 2006, we published a report called "Mobile Payment in China: Bricks and Clicks Going Mobile?". In this report, we analyzed several mobile companies in China, including a company in Beijing called Nation-M. Just recently, we had trouble opening their website and had trouble getting through to their office. We even tried to contact Nation-M's founder via his direct line, but that number has been canceled by the telephone company already.
Does this mean that Nation-M has gone under? Could this be the beginning of a market consolidation phase in China's m-payment industry? We decided to explore further into this situation to see what we could dig up.
Alipay's International (Non)-Business
As my colleague Boaz has mentioned in a previous post , Alipay's overseas expansion is not going as smoothly as planned. I have take a closer look into Alipay's international business and found the following tidbits:
1. Alipay's international merchants consist mostly of retailers from cosmetics, fashion, personal electronics based in Hong Kong and Taiwan. To a certain degree, this "international market" is largely limited to Greater China, not too much about America and Europe, i.e. a broader sense of international market.
China's Lottery Ban - The e-Payment Angle
On January 3rd, China daily reported on a newly issued ban on the online sale of lottery tickets:
The online sale of lottery tickets was banned yesterday by a circular jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sports.
This is a potential blow to China's third-party payment providers.
LinQpay and IPS Announce China M-Payment JV
LinQpay and IPS have just announced a China M-Payment Joint Venture.
This new joint venture is a major move by IPS to increase its competitive edge in China's growing payment market. Although one of the only few profitable payment providers in China, IPS's 1.5 million strong user base is dwarfed compared to its competition: Alipay with 50+ million, Tenpay with 25+ million, and YeePay with 10+ million.
Alipay - Coming to America
On December 20th Alipay issued a press release announcing a cooperation agreement with Philliou Selwanes Partners to promote the acceptance of Alipay's services to North American merchants.
Alipay, which is one of China's leading third-party payment providers has recently been focusing on expansion to overseas markets, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and now the US.
Alipay's Overseas Expansion Not Going According to Plan
According to a recent article in Digitimes , Alipay expansion to markets outside China is not going according to plan:
Alipay, the largest platform to provide third-party electronic payment service in China, began its operation in the Taiwan market around the end of November 2007 with a goal of attracting 100 online store operators to use its service by the end of 2007, but the number of users was quite far below the target as of the end of 2007
and the reasons being:
Alipay's less than expected attractiveness to operators of online stores in Taiwan is because potential customers in China are generally not aware of merchandise available for online sale in Taiwan... The Chinese government has not yet allowed Chinese tourists to directly visit Taiwan and some websites in Taiwan are blocked from access in China...
Alipay Launches the Taobao Green Card
Alipay has launched yet another co-branded debit card a few days ago. Along with the Dragon Card launched over a year ago, Alipay users can now apply for the Taobao Green Card.
We have previously reported on Alipay’s Multi-Channel Payment Options that include online bank transfers, cash remittance through China Post, and credit card substitutes in the form of Alipay co-branded debit cards.
Maverick Quoted on M-Payment in China
Maverick China Research was quoted in Peggy Anne Salz's article, "The next big thing," on the topic of m-payment in China:
"China's m-payment industry is stuck in a rut, with little consumer demand and no comprehensive network of operators, banks and merchants available that can match the selection, prices and convenience of online or bricks-and-mortar payment," observed Dave Carini, analyst at Maverick China Research.
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