Mobile payment is not only concerned about one’s wallet.
Nowadays, in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and many other places, you don’t need to exchange foreign currency. You can scan the code with WeChat and Alipay, and you can automatically convert it into RMB payment according to the exchange rate of the day. The scope of mobile payment is constantly expanding. WeChat recently announced that Amsterdam Airport in the Netherlands has become the first WeChat smart flagship airport in Europe to support WeChat applets to book duty-free goods. Users can purchase goods in the applet before arriving at the airport, and after arriving at the airport, they can scan the code to pay for the delivery at the "WeChat delivery point". At present, more than 80% merchants in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol have opened WeChat payment.
Why do mobile payment companies compete in the sea? Besides competing for China tourists’ mobile payment wallets, what are the strategies for localization?
Cross-border trade demand "forced" mobile payment to go to sea
Mobile payment is accelerating the pace of overseas development. Alipay’s overseas offline payment has covered more than 40 countries and regions, and has access to hundreds of thousands of overseas merchant stores including eating, drinking, and transportation. More than 149 overseas international airports around the world have access to WeChat, which supports payment in 13 currencies. As of April 2019, the number of merchants covered by WeChat payment in Europe increased by 3.5 times compared with last year.
The overseas development of mobile payment generally begins with "forced by demand". Alipay and WeChat payment cover many merchants in China. With the continuous expansion of "overseas purchase", many overseas merchants also hope to access mobile payment services for China tourists. At this time, third-party payment providers need to help these merchants solve problems such as information and capital circulation, and enhance the overseas consumption experience of Chinese people.
According to the White Paper on the Development and Trend of China Mobile Payment Overseas Tourism Market in 2018, the transaction volume of outbound tourists in China accounted for 32% of the total transaction volume, surpassing cash payment for the first time, and nearly 70% of China tourists have become accustomed to using mobile phones to pay overseas.
"We have seen the rapid growth of Alipay used by residents in third-and fourth-tier cities and middle-aged and elderly people abroad, which shows that overseas mobile payment is rapidly spreading." Chen Jiayi, director of Alipay International Business Department, said.
Fan Wei, senior director of WeChat payment, said that the greatest value of mobile payment is not to reduce the payment speed from a few seconds to a few milliseconds, but to turn a payment into a future sale, and to associate the user’s purchase behavior with the sales data. These are what overseas businesses want.
In addition to WeChat and Alipay, UnionPay is gradually increasing the pace of international cooperation by virtue of its channel and cooperation advantages. In November 2018, unionpay international cooperated with Malaysian Axiata Telecom Group to realize its wallet product Boost supporting UnionPay QR code payment service through electronic card issuance. At present, consumers in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and other places have been able to bind the locally issued UnionPay card on the mobile payment client and scan the code for payment in the global UnionPay QR code merchants.
Lowering service threshold and promoting the development of local inclusive finance.
In a report on the domestic third-party payment industry, Analysys International mentioned that the domestic third-party payment market, especially in first-and second-tier cities, tends to be saturated, and the upper limit is obvious. The giants have both certain technology accumulation and external expansion needs; As the first entry point of business closed-loop and user’s financial behavior, mobile payment is the "bridgehead" of the company’s outward development and an important part of the global strategic layout of the giant; From the perspective of payment service chain, with the prosperity of cross-border trade and the increasing demand for export consumption, both B-end merchants and C-end users have great market potential.
However, the mobile payment has also moved to inclusive finance from improving the overseas consumption experience of Chinese people, and promoted the competitiveness of mobile payment in neighboring countries.
According to the data of the World Bank, there are still 2 billion people in developing countries who do not have bank accounts, only 10% of them hold credit cards, and only 21% of those who need loans get loans through formal financial institutions.
Ant Financial found that in the densely populated countries along the "Belt and Road", although the economy is on the rise, the financial system is developing slowly and unevenly, and the cost for ordinary people to obtain financial services is very high. Helping local people build local wallets can not only promote the development of local e-commerce and Internet economy, but also greatly lower the threshold for ordinary people to obtain financial services.
For example, in India, Thailand, the Philippines and other countries and regions, Alipay has landed nine "Alipay" belonging to local people. Among them, Paytm, which is built in cooperation with India, can charge phone bills, pay water and electricity bills, transfer money, and purchase goods and services online. Half of PayTM’s 250 million users come from second-tier cities and rural areas in India, which has promoted the development of inclusive finance in India.
Wang Zhimin, director of the Institute of Globalization and China Modernization of the University of International Business and Economics, said: "Countries are not only strict in financial supervision, but also very sensitive to foreign companies entering the financial industry, and it is also difficult for the people to accept it. Building a local brand e-wallet can promote the process of local digitalization and effectively solve this problem. "
The regulatory systems of various countries are not unified or become the biggest obstacle.
At a time when the domestic scene has been fully excavated and solidified, mobile payment going to sea is the first choice to expand the transaction scene and increase the transaction scale, but there are some discordant voices. On May 21st, according to Nepal’s Himalayan Times, the Central Bank of Nepal announced that it would ban the use of WeChat payment and Alipay in Nepal, saying that because China tourists illegally used these payment applications, the money never passed through Nepal’s banking channels, which made it impossible for Nepalese authorities to register the consumption of China tourists as overseas income.
In 2016, the Bank of Thailand issued a warning to merchants in the country, reminding merchants in scenic spots in Thailand to pay attention to the risks brought by using "foreign payment platforms" that are not officially authorized; Vietnam also unilaterally announced that foreign electronic payments such as Alipay and WeChat payment are "illegal payment settlement" in Vietnam, and their use is prohibited.
Although the relevant payment platform responded that its overseas business has always followed local laws and regulations, it called on users to standardize the use of bar code payment services according to the "Collection Code Agreement". However, Douglas Warner, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, believes that the disunity of regulatory systems in various countries may be the biggest obstacle for China’s mobile payment enterprises to expand overseas markets. From the security of fund settlement to big data processing, it must conform to the different regulatory systems of countries and regions.
In addition to different regulatory systems and foreign countries’ emphasis on personal consumption privacy, the international payment market has been monopolized by several international payment giants such as VISA and MasterCard for more than half a century, mainly in the form of credit card payment. And at this stage, in Europe, America and other countries, credit card payment is still the main payment method for its residents.
He Qiang, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that mobile payment is an important part of Internet finance. At present, there are obstacles in China’s mobile payment abroad, mainly because financial organizations such as VISA have formulated "Western standards" for mobile payment in the form of alliances, which are difficult to be compatible with China standards.
In addition to the consideration of financial security in various countries, infrastructure is also a factor that can not be ignored whether mobile payment can be used. According to statistics, at present, China has more than 5 million base stations, while the United States only has more than 200,000. By 2018, there are 5 million 4G base stations in the world, of which China has more than 3 million, and other 4G base stations are owned by more than 190 countries and regions such as the United States.
He Qiang believes that China’s mobile payment industry should be encouraged to continue to develop at home, and the "China standard" for mobile payment should be established as soon as possible in the international field. At the same time, it is necessary to speed up the integration of different mobile payment standards in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and establish a world benchmark for regional mobile payment interconnection. (Reporter Li He)