Analysis of Development Trend of Mobile Payment

With the increasing popularity of payment concepts, there have been many problems, and some have even affected the foundation: As a basic service, the payment business model mainly relies on economies of scale, and the profitability has not been optimistic. In recent years, there has been a surge of interest. With such a large number of companies, even the basic survival has become a big problem. And the payment is a high-risk area directly related to the “funds”. It is not to be worried about whether the vicious competition in the industry will affect the safety of the entire ecological environment.

There are many problems, indicating that the development of payments has touched on the nature of business. When the Internet circles are all playing drums for mobile payments, some institutions inside and outside the payment industry are already working to optimize and improve these issues. Then, in the new year, what are some interesting trends in the development of electronic payments?

Alipay mode

The emergence of numerous homogenized payment companies has exacerbated vicious price competition, but it has also objectively promoted the standardization of payment services, which has greatly reduced the provision of payment technology and business barriers. It should be said that the current electronic payment has already met the most basic needs of the Internet (including the mobile Internet) and is no longer the main bottleneck for development.

However, this means that for the "payment instrument" it means that it will be marginalized. The situation of oversupply has become a reality. Although there are certain differences in the merits of payment services, price warfare is gradually eliminating this difference. In the absence of major reforms in the bank’s electronic channels and industry supervision methods, where is the payment company?

Taking Alipay as an example, its industry status has long been beyond doubt. But in addition to the typical passive mode of being “called” by Taobao and external merchants, Alipay has no active interaction with users. In this way, the role of the Alipay cashier is still significant, and the commercial value of Alipay is ultimately limited. What are the fundamental differences between it and China UnionPay Electronics, Quick Money Yibao and Super Online Banking? Jingdong Mall abandoned Alipay will be repeated in other major e-commerce portal? If this kind of situation occurs in a large area, does Alipay still need to exist?

Alipay has already been trying to change this embarrassing situation. It has introduced a lot of “applications” on its own independent portal, such as lottery tickets, water and electricity for people’s livelihood payments, and credit card repayments. However, the effect is limited in the end—this type of cyclical product cannot Produce enough user stickiness and commercial return. More seriously, this also brings Alipay positioning flaws: These services on Taobao is not better? Is Alipay, a payment company, a friend of e-commerce or a potential adversary? The spread of the mobile Internet has made this vague contradiction even more prominent.

What does the payment company rely on to seize the primary or secondary screen of the smartphone user? Not only purely third-party payment companies need to consider this issue, but also group-level payment companies that rely on “big business” trees to rely on. Does the "people's livelihood payment" business, which is not so popular, be transferred to the main business to increase the competitiveness of APP? Will the payment company need to spend effort now on a payment application that is not justified and can only "check account balances and historical transactions?"

From another point of view, the mobile Internet has brought many payment companies back to the same starting line. In a sense, it has become a rare opportunity: Exploring payment applications in the past can be considered an attempt by a large company to be spontaneous, and now it has become a All payment companies are in an imperative transition under the mobile internet environment. The entire industry is looking for the most suitable direction. Mobile payment and O2O payment are the hot concepts born under this background. And we need to further excavate the most pressing applications that respond to this demand. I think the most direct There is nothing more than "mobile financial applications".

The emergence of mobile financial applications

There are more or less misplaced functions in the current payment industry's two typical mobile clients. Third-party payment companies naturally own Internet genes and multi-bank channels, but they spend their efforts on sales of “people’s livelihood payment fees, lottery ticket cards” and other commodities that they do not own and are unable to intensively cultivate. In fact, these are more suitable for pursuing political achievements. State-owned companies go to the banner.) Mobile banking has attractive financial products and bank card services, but it is constrained by its own narrow customer base, narrow business thinking, and a natural ceiling for development. As a cost center or technical department, it is difficult to secure enough resources to grow.

The organic integration of the two is the embryonic form of mobile financial applications that are centered on user accounts: creating “self-service financial butlers” for users and integrating disparate flows and products from various banks (or other account issuers). Improve the activity of bank cards and help real B2C e-commerce do a good job in traffic guidance. This is a service that users, banks, and merchants all need. For example, after optimization of basic product packaging such as "transfer between any bank card", "Guidelines for bank card marketing activities," and "accounting for revenue and expenditure", it will be sufficient for all three parties to benefit.

There are already pioneers trying: 51 bank card managers, card cattle and other third-party applications, UnionPay mobile payment check balance, mobile banking and other super-financial transfer clients, as well as the newly betad Alipay card treasure, etc., are more or less He realized the great potential in this area. However, this is far from enough. We look forward to the emergence of a purer and more resolute mobile financial application, which may be a third-party payment company in the financial sector, or a “crowdsourcing” payment service provider with a certain industry status. Anyway, this will be the prototype of a great mobile internet company.

Need to further explain, mobile financial applications seem to use "mobile client" as a carrier, but it is not only doing remote payment. Through NFC, two-dimensional code, smart machine accessories and with the mobile operator's SIM card, can also play a miraculous effect in the field of near field payment. This is also one of the opportunities for large and medium-sized banks to catch up with traditional large banks in the field of card issuance in the context of the migration of bank magnetic stripe cards to chip cards.

Of course, the transition to mobile financial applications means that payment services are gradually moving from behind the scenes to the stage. It is no longer just a temporary bridge between merchants and banks, but it has its own business mission and becomes the bond for the coordinated development of finance and the Internet. .

The rise of banking power

Bill Gates once asserted that "traditional banks will become dinosaurs that will be extinct in the 21st century." This conclusion is somewhat exaggerated, and it is unrealistic at least in China. However, the electronic capabilities of banks are indeed lagging far behind development. It can even be said that it is because of this that they have created electronic payment services with Chinese characteristics.

The rapid development of the Internet completely subverted the bank's traditional service thinking for cardholders, making it more electronic, convenient and personalized. Cyberbanking is the first banking channel to be standardized due to the promotion of the Internet. What will happen next? Quick and no card, IVR voice, collection and payment, air card issuance...... In any case, the bank's electronic channel will be more and more abundant and more standardized. On the other hand, the carrying capacity, security, product usability, and tariff pricing of these electronic channels need to be greatly optimized in order to meet the rapid expansion of mainstream consumer demand after 80's and 90's.

The branches of major banks have acted as depositors or other competitive resources to relax access restrictions and lower access prices. This has resulted in a considerable amount of transaction size for e-commerce and third-party payment companies that have become mixed, but they have also overdrawn. The vitality of these electronic channels, especially their security, cannot be reliably guaranteed. The technical loopholes of some malicious companies may affect all peers using the same type of channels, thereby threatening the development of the entire Internet.

This issue needs to be given full attention. Excellent e-commerce and payment companies can help banks, re-evaluate and plan the bank's electronic channel access and usage specifications, and delineate the appropriate cost space as a driving force for bank upgrades and innovation. .

In the past, e-commerce companies and payment companies have created "virtual accounts" in order to minimize bank restrictions in rapid development. Now it seems that their popularity, average account balances, compliance security, and profitability models are gradually being touched during business development. To the "ceiling". With the strengthening of the bank's electronic channel capabilities, we see that payment companies have a tendency to use virtual accounts as a kind of marketing supplement for bank accounts rather than transit funds for user funds. In this way, payment companies and banks will avoid unnecessary competition and cooperate and develop in a complementary manner.

Regulatory methods need to be adjusted

Payment as the most recent non-financial industry from the money, in the domestic credit environment, really needs to strengthen management. The People's Bank of China has assumed this responsibility, but the current situation is not optimistic.

The supervision of the People's Bank of China as a target of "payment services" is a dislocation in management, and it is easy to fall into the deadlock of using traditional mechanisms to control the development of emerging businesses. "Payment business" was born in response to market demand. It is naturally changeable and complex, and its type and model cannot be clearly defined. For example, in the three categories of eight types of payment services stipulated in the “Procedures for the Management of Payment Services for Non-financial Institutions” by the PBC, the “currency exchange” has ceased to exist, and “mobile phone payment” has always failed to provide a definition, and “internet payment” and Other business is obviously not in the same dimension. Even businesses with relatively clear operating models, such as “bank card receipts,” directly regulated the business activities, only curbing their innovation. Not to mention other payment services that are still evolving and changing.

The People's Bank of China needs to change its perspective from the financial sector where it excels, refine the core financial capabilities involved in the “payment business”, and regulate the use of these funds based on this, and regulate it in a timely manner according to market development, such as the banking channel. Open access, credit authentication of user merchants, record management of capital flows, and various types of infrastructure that can be networked. In the follow-up draft of the relevant measures for consultation, we see that the People's Bank of China has already considered it, but it needs to be further clarified and cooperate with the corresponding monitoring and incentive measures to ensure implementation.