news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

recently, the news that taobao will fully integrate into wechat pay has caused a sensation in the entire internet circle.

although the news of the “removal of the wall” between alibaba and tencent is nothing new, further interconnection is definitely a win-win situation for both users and taobao and tencent.

however, when such a day is really coming, many people will still sigh for this great reconciliation of the century, and at the same time they will be more curious, "what does alipay, the son of alibaba, think of this?"

in this regard, alipay responded generously: openness, collaboration, innovation, and sharing are the basic spirit of the internet and the general trend of industry development. alipay will continue to deepen strategic cooperation with taotian group, increase technological innovation and product innovation, and continue to create greater value for merchants and consumers...

but the problem is that you can't have the best of both worlds. when taobao supports wechat pay, some of the existing users' transactions will inevitably be transferred from alipay to wechat pay, so the value of alipay to taobao will still be affected.

even if alipay has other platforms open to supplement, by comparison, if taobao and tencent can get 90% profit and 10% loss from cooperation, then alipay can only get 30% profit. as for how much loss is behind it, can it make up for it? this is probably another matter...

taobao and wechat pay have joined forces to block the "door" of alipay?

what impact will the cooperation between taobao and wechat pay have on alipay?

from the outside to the inside,there are three main layers:

the first layer is the business level that everyone is aware of. wechat pay may thus snatch away a portion of the taobao e-commerce payment transaction volume that was previously exclusive to alipay.

however, in this regard, according to the tianyancha app, ant group's 2020 prospectus pointed out that the payment transaction volume from taotian actually only accounted for about 6% of alipay's total payment transactions for the whole year.

therefore, even if wechat pay can take away all of alipay’s taobao transaction volume after interconnection, the overall impact on alipay will be extremely limited.

then let's look atthe second layer: taobao’s integration into wechat pay has actually shaken the bottom line of alipay’s traffic and blocked part of the online traffic entrance.

what exactly is alipay competing with wechat pay for?in fact, it refers to various high-frequency small-amount payment scenarios, which is also the core entry point for obtaining traffic that is necessary for the development of a payment tool platform.

especially for tool-type applications such as alipay, this is its lifeline, and it is also the premise and starting point for the platform to extend more commercial monetization services, such as local life, financial management, insurance and other business formats.

however, in the past "walled era", taobao e-commerce and many alibaba apps were exclusive traffic entrances for alipay. if you want to use ele.me, you must have alipay; if you want to enjoy food delivery services on alipay, you can only choose ele.me. this is a two-way internal cycle, which also creates a stable traffic base for alipay.

but now, once taobao is fully integrated into wechat pay, no matter how big or small the impact is, it will ultimately block a considerable portion of alipay's e-commerce traffic entrance.

and e-commerce is nothing.if the interconnection between alibaba and tencent is further upgraded, all traffic entrances belonging to alibaba of alipay may be continuously penetrated by wechat pay.this is where alipay will really suffer serious damage.

after all, this affects the entire online traffic scale of alipay. so will the platform ecosystem extended from this shrink due to "lack of water"?

of course, everything has two sides. when taobao is connected to wechat pay, there will be an outflow of taobao traffic, and there will be an inflow of new traffic from wechat and tencent.

for example, meituan. on the day the news came out, according to alipay’s weibo, “meituan takeout” and “meituan hotel” were simultaneously launched on alipay mini-programs, issuing exclusive coupons and merchant coupons and other benefits to alipay users.

to be honest, this does open up an imaginative window of opportunity for alipay.

unfortunately, unless meituan and others can make alipay the first payment option by default, alipay and others will still be in a very passive position compared to wechat pay, which has a stable user base...

thirdly, in the long run, alipay should perhaps also pay attention to the issue of shifting payment habits.

after saying so much, it is essentially still centered around payments in online scenarios and has little impact on offline consumer payments.

but in fact, with the further upgrading of the interconnection between taobao and wechat, it will not only affect alipay's online payment scenarios, but offline payment scenarios may also be affected.

after all, wechat payment itself is used frequently, and alipay as a tool application is naturally inferior to wechat. so in the long run, will the countless young people who are accustomed to this payment method continue to use it from online to offline?

alipay has never stopped this anxiety because everyone is accustomed to using wechat pay. therefore, in offline supermarkets, alipay's touch-and-pay and various promotional activities have a much greater operational thinking than wechat pay. this is the helplessness of tool-based applications. now, with the involvement of wechat pay in taobao, alipay's high-frequency small-amount payments have further decreased, and behind this is a decline in the opening rate.

wechat pay can solve all mass consumption problems, so is it necessary to have the alipay app on mobile phones?alipay, what other unique user value does it have?

you know,originally, in terms of payment scenario coverage, alipay can do it, and wechat pay can do it too; but what wechat pay can do, alipay may not be able to do.for example, on the consumer user side, if one software can meet all needs, people are almost unwilling to open a second one. if they can pay while chatting, they are unwilling to open alipay unnecessarily.

another example is b-side merchants. regardless of which platform they operate on, many merchants now use wechat as a private channel to connect brands with core customers, using wechat groups and public accounts to maintain old customers on taobao, and then send red envelopes whenever they want to bring in goods...

in this regard, although alipay has also embedded content such as live broadcasts and short videos into mini programs + life accounts, trying to recommend products to users through content reach, so as to undertake the full chain of business operations. however, due to its inherent lack of social attributes and weak private domain characteristics, alipay can do it for business operations, but it is difficult to do it well...

so from this perspective,in the past, the closedness of the alibaba group was both a limitation and a unique advantage barrier for alipay. but now that the wall has been removed, alipay has gained more independence and freedom, but at the same time, it has also given wechat pay more opportunities and possibilities to penetrate into more scenarios...

alipay’s counterattack: from investing billions in content to launching “zhi xiao bao”

of course, alipay is not unprepared for the long-rumored news that taobao will be connected to wechat pay.

for example, the day after the news of the demolition of the walls between taobao and wechat came out, alipay released a new ai life manager app "zhi xiao bao" at the 2024 inclusion bund conference. from the introduction, zhi xiao bao can quickly book tickets, take a taxi, check nearby food, drink and entertainment, etc. through conversations. just say a word to get things done, which is a bit like a combination of ai tools and content.

for example, in the middle of the year, alipay held its first content open day for creators and announced an investment of 1 billion in cash, 10 billion in traffic, and 100 million in advertising resources to support content creators.

the former may solve the problem: apart from payment scenarios, what is the user value of alipay that is different from wechat pay?

it is obvious that alipay has chosen ai and personalized services, and wants to integrate various platform tools through a big model to create an ai life manager.

to be honest, these ideas are not new. similar descriptions have been used in many large-scale model promotion scenarios. however, publicity is publicity. if zhixiaobao can really succeed, it may become the second identity label of alipay.

unfortunately, judging from various media reports, the zhixiaobao team itself seems to have not yet fully clarified its ideas on ai technology innovation, business model exploration, cost control, and experience detail polishing. all of this is still in its infancy...

now let's look at the latter.alipay's idea to break through the traffic bottleneck is to take the content route, increase user usage frequency and extend retention time.

objectively speaking, there is nothing wrong with this idea. however, as a tool platform that focuses on finance and provides services, alipay must fundamentally solve two major difficulties in building a content ecosystem:

one is the issue of business focus.

if the focus is on building a content ecosystem, then the level of the existing video entrance within the app is still too low.

at present, the first thing users see when entering the alipay app is the local life services, and the content cannot occupy the user's attention at the first time. if the weight of the content is increased, the local life entrance will be weakened, which is actually a dilemma.

compared with video content that has not yet formed a complete commercial closed loop, the local life portal is obviously more important. in addition, the importance of the financial sector is irreplaceable, so alipay does not yet have a favorable soil for content creation.

if the entrance problem is solved, then another question is,how does alipay build a content ecosystem?

in fact, with douyin, kuaishou, bilibili, video account and xiaohongshu, there is no shortage of players in the content track. the difficulty and challenge of building a content platform are no less than that of building a social platform.

when alipay creates content, the most direct challenge it faces is what tone of content to choose?

douyin has its own content tone, and the tone of douyin is people’s daily life. the same is true for kuaishou, and kuaishou has a more rural atmosphere. needless to say, bilibili and xiaohongshu, the content tone is their bread and butter.

as for wechat, it is a hodgepodge. the content ecology of subscription accounts is rich enough, so creating a video account is actually a natural progression.

as a result, alipay has neither the original content ecosystem to start with nor the difficulty in building a content ecosystem with a unique tone. how to increase content traffic? this is a question worth pondering.

at present, the content of alipay is still centered around movies, comedy, and daily life, with no special content. in addition, the traffic is average, so even with a "1 billion" cash subsidy, it may be difficult to attract high-quality creators.

after all,content platforms that lack tone are all the same and have no vitality.

but then again, crisis often has two meanings: danger and opportunity.

as taobao and wechat pay are approaching full interoperability, wechat pay's siphoning effect on alipay's high-frequency payment scenarios will become more obvious. alipay can only rely on its own endogenous traffic.

but when the truth comes out, what will alipay be left with? i'm afraid it will still be the original financial management!

so can alipay use this to transform its content into finance? first, put on a clear professional label, and after countless users have a financial impression, continue to break this content label, just like the two-dimensional b station in the past...

of course, no matter what the final choice of alipay is, as the interconnection and interoperability are further promoted,

taobao really doesn’t have much time left for alipay to break through in terms of content…