Behind the red Envelope War: The Battle of mobile payment market

In the 2015 Spring Festival, the hottest topic is micro-letter red envelopes. "Can be solved with red envelopes, try not to use language." ”

According to China Mobile internet four entrances (micro-letter, micro-BO, mobile phone QQ and Alipay Wallet) released red packets data, New Year's Eve, micro-letter red envelopes to send and receive 1.01 billion times, is 200 times times last year's Eve, There are 683 million people involved in the payment of the treasure Red envelopes game, pay the total number of packets received more than 240 million, the total amount of 4 billion yuan. There are 154 million people involved in robbing the QQ Spring Festival red Envelopes, 15.41 million microblogging users share the star and the merchant sent out the 101 million red packets.

Insiders believe that the Spring Festival "red envelope War" is actually a fierce competition for mobile payments. Red envelopes may be one of the levers that internet companies use to pry users into more consumption.

Red envelopes behind the mobile payment scramble

Many netizens said that the first three generations of television set up a special scene of mobile phone shake red envelopes, so that the year of the goat became the most "Internet flavor" of the Spring Festival.

Mr. Wang said that during the spring Festival, he robbed a total of 2000 yuan and sent out 1900 yuan.

Unlike the 2014 red envelopes, the first game is more diverse.

Tencent push micro-letter "Shake red Envelopes", and interactive with the Spring Festival evening, the payment of treasure red envelopes after being killed by micro-envelopes, the introduction of "Password Red packets", Baidu Wallet also launched a "cash red envelopes" play.

The second is that internet companies are sending red envelopes at their own expense.

Tencent said to send 6.5 billion yuan red envelopes, including the Spring Festival Gala when the total distribution of 500 million yuan of micro-letter cash red envelopes and more than 3 billion of the card coupons and mobile phone QQ 3 billion yuan red envelopes; Ali said that hand-brand merchants issued about 600 million yuan to pay Bao red envelopes, cash more than 156 million yuan, shopping consumption red envelopes about 430 million yuan; Sina Weibo, fast, Youku and so on have also allied to pay the treasure purse, the wild sprinkle "red envelopes rain."

From the data alone, the 2015 Chinese New Year's red envelope war, micro-faith performance better.

Senior E-commerce expert, million-engine consulting CEO Ruzenwang said, through the mobile phone red envelope war, micro-letter hope to get more mobile payment portal, Alipay is hoping to add social, each complement their own short board.

"The advantage of the micro-letter payment lies in the expansion of new users, the opening rate of users of micro-credit; Alipay's advantage is that relying on Taobao platform to pay the environmental advantage, so this red envelope war, are winners. Ruzenwang said that the next step is to use the scene of contention, the final goal is to build their own financial services platform to win customers to achieve profitability.

Lei, director of China e-commerce Research Center, said through the joint business to the user to issue cash or consumer coupons, micro-letters, Alipay and other triggers and cultivate the user's online consumption and mobile payment habits, which allows Tencent, Alibaba and other internet companies in mobile payments, online life services and even financial management to obtain more revenue. Red envelopes may be one of the levers that internet companies use to pry users into more consumption.

Mr. Wang said that the money in the micro-letter wallet transferred to the bank card, micro-letter port to pay the merchant is not enough, offline entity shop payment is currently not encountered, it is not easy to use.

How does the bank preempt the mobile payment market?

In the user's impression, the traditional bank has always been "high handsome", but in the entertainment and practical experience, the micro-red envelopes as the representative of the Internet finance far beyond the bank.

The central bank February 12 released "2014 payment system operating overall situation" report shows that the 2014 mobile payment business 4.524 billion, the amount of 22.59 trillion yuan, year-on-year growth of 170.25% and 134.3% respectively. At the same time, the growth rate of bank card issuance slowed by 2.1% in 2014, and the bank card transaction amount slowed 16.01% year-on-year, the National Bank card pen average consumption amount fell 12.55%.

Guo, director of the China Banking Research Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said the competition for mobile payments was traffic, and that micro-letters could bring many people together to attract potential customers. But how to turn the stolen red envelopes into payment is a process that evolves from social entertainment to financial behavior.

The year of the RAM, the Pudong bank credit card became the only bank that cooperated with the Alipay red envelope. Pu FA Bank in February 12, 14th two days, to the exclusive cooperation bank identity, through the Alipay channel to the consumer issued 10 million red envelopes.

"For many consumers, especially young consumers who have developed the habit of using financial services at the mobile end, this kind of promotional approach, which attracts the eyes of the red envelope, will certainly lead a group of customers to bind and use the corresponding bank cards for all kinds of payments," said one bank insider.

The bankers said that interest rate liberalization is a development trend, banks should be more active to embrace the Internet, but also willing to work with internet companies to launch some of the Internet innovation business.

Jia, chief international economic analyst at ICBC's Research and Development department, said, "The bank must first consider the risk, then consider the return, first of all to keep the money of depositors or shareholders, and then consider the issue of income." "The first thing Internet companies have to think about is how to grab the market," Jia said. Of course, banks will certainly learn positively, but they will not blindly follow suit to do the same thing.

Internet payments are still in savage growth

After the lively, the network red envelopes also face security, supervision and many other problems to be solved.

February 2 around 10 o'clock in the evening, people suddenly found that the payment of precious red envelopes by micro-envelope kill, click "Send micro-trust friends" after the show "can not share to micro-letter." Tencent's explanation is: "The recent micro-letter received a user report, a large part of the sale of fakes, false red envelopes, fraud and other violations of the source are from a small number of Third-party platform links to share." Tencent public platform in the near future to violate the third party platform behavior of the gradual rectification. ”

The 2014 Mobile Internet Payment Security survey, issued by China UnionPay, showed that 10% of respondents had experienced online transaction fraud, up 4% from 2013, with phishing sites, trojans and fraudulent refunds still the main fraud.

During the Spring Festival, when the red envelopes are soft, some netizens reflect the recent information leakage from the micro-letter robbery, the money is being cheated. Some experts pointed out that the Internet red packets were robbed, but no one tube. These new problems caused by internet finance, there is no clear legal interpretation, the regulatory department also appeared vacant, causing a lot of real confusion.

Ruzenwang said, there are generally two ways to send red envelopes: One is the scene between acquaintances, a platform for the release of the scene, and specific implementation to the payment of security, at least at present see no large-scale vicious event problem, of course, must also gradually strengthen security, otherwise it will be discarded by users.

Jia said that in the fight against the red envelopes, there are users who do not know the circumstances of the red envelopes to give out. When some business or use behavior has not yet become mainstream, the relevant regulations and laws are not keep up with the normal. But after the red envelope campaign, many traditional bank executives said banks should embrace internet finance and embrace technology, tools, and awareness.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)