Recently, the news that Wal Mart banned Alipay attracted media attention. For one of the mobile payment giants, this is nothing more than a big loss. So what's the reason? Why does Wal Mart ban Alipay? How does Alipay respond? Let's take a look.
According to several media reports, some Wal Mart stores (including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing) have suspended Alipay use, causing widespread concern. With the fermentation of the above-mentioned disturbance, Alipay and wechat payment, two mobile payment giants, are deeply trapped in the vortex of public opinion. Time finance and economics noted that Wal Mart, wechat and step-by-step have responded, but Alipay remains silent. As of the publication, in response to the above events, Alipay said to timefinance that it was not convenient to respond temporarily and did not disclose more information.
Wal Mart China responded that since March 15, 2018, Wal Mart West China and wechat have reached an in-depth partnership, will launch exclusive offers, and conduct more precision marketing cooperation based on big data analysis. At the same time, Wal Mart's stores in West China temporarily stopped accepting Alipay payment, saying 'this is a business decision, Wal Mart reviews its business from time to time'. Wechat official said: 'we respect Wal Mart's business choice. Tencent adheres to the role of connection assistance in the field of intelligent retail, provides a series of digital tools for businesses, and at the same time, it does not obtain business data, respects business privacy, and gains the trust and recognition of partners. '
Coincidentally, Hunan Bubugao supermarket has also been banned from Alipay. However, according to lianshang.com, Bu Bu Gao responded that "the statement about banning the use of Alipay is not accurate. Before that, Bu Bu Gao had only a small number of stores experimental access to Alipay, not all stores use it, and now there are still formats and stores using Alipay. At the same time, Alipay's cooperation mode is too strong. It only serves as a first level entrance, and it does not accept two-way access. We cannot accept such unfair cooperation. 'it is reported that two-way access is not accepted, which means Alipay can obtain step-by-step data, and step-by-step cannot share Alipay's data resources.
In addition, according to time finance, Wanda Department Store in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province does not accept Alipay payment, but wechat payment can be used. Alibaba's HEMA Xiansheng is exposed to not support wechat payment. However, it is reported that at present, the Dujiangyan store of RT mart of Alibaba department still supports wechat payment.
Behind the competition between Alipay and wechat payment is the intensified competition between Alibaba and Tencent in the new retail field. According to time finance, as early as 2016, Wal Mart reached in-depth strategic cooperation with JD. Tencent is the largest shareholder of JD. Wal Mart is the third largest shareholder after Tencent and Liu qiangdong.
In February of this year, Tencent and Jingdong respectively invested 887 million yuan and 739 million yuan in strategic shareholding, with each holding 6% and 5%. Step by step announcement shows that with the vision of jointly developing 'smart retail' and 'boundless retail', the three parties will carry out in-depth cooperation in building new capabilities, building a 'digital' operation system, and finally creating a new ecosystem, so as to realize the reconstruction of the value chain of the retail industry. In addition, Tencent also entered Yonghui supermarket, Carrefour, super species, daily Youxian convenience shopping, vipshop, Hailan home, Wanda business, etc.
As a heavyweight player in the new retail arena, Ali has arranged HEMA Xiansheng, Auchan, Yintai, Suning, RT mart, Sanjiang shopping, Bailian Group, xinhuadu and Gaoxin retail, etc. In the new retail and mobile payment fields, the competition between Alibaba and Tencent is increasingly fierce.
Many reports have pointed out that as Tencent and Alibaba's new retail competition intensifies, some businesses start to stand in line, which may damage consumer welfare. According to a well-known commentator quoted by the China times, Wal Mart's actions may be suspected of violating anti-monopoly laws and regulations. Experts were also quoted as saying that at the macro level, this kind of behavior is detrimental to fair trade. If similar enterprises with monopoly status implement some restrictions of transaction conditions based on their own interests, it will inevitably cause the market economy can not really trade freely, and ultimately damage the welfare of consumers.
It is worth mentioning that on March 21, Ma Huateng, chairman of Tencent's board of directors and CEO, talked about the competition in the field of mobile payment. He once said: 'I think there is competition and reasonable competition to promote the development of the industry. Why is mobile payment developing so fast in China from a global perspective, because it has reasonable competition. Therefore, it is not a bad thing that there is competition in the industry. We should take a positive view of this matter. '