MA (Contemporary China) | Mandarin Teacher | Chinese-English Translator | Economist By Training | E-Business Entrepreneur [MSc (e-Biz)]
𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗠𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗙𝗹𝗲𝗲 Yesterday (Jul 8) #Alipay announced the pilot launch of "碰一下“ (see pic1, which I would translate as Touch Once) function for its mobile payment at the checkout counter at six cities (Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou, Fuzhou) and so I thought of comparing such services btw China and #Singapore. I would regard this improvement as "incremental innovation" over the current "扫一下“ (Scan Once, pic 3) function and it shows that Chinese economy is market-oriented as competition is keen and so innovation is required to keep one ahead of its competitors. So if you think that China is a central planned economy by virtue that it is a communist country, think again. Singapore's common mode of mobile payment (pic 2) is to open up a payment app and scan the QR code of the merchant, and to key in the amount for payment. This is of course not a neat solution and there are times the payor keys in the wrong amount. It does highlight that Singapore lacks a super-app which allows a unique "Personal QR code" to denote the payor and not the merchant-centric approach now. Some e-wallets do generate "Personal QR code" but you need the platform of a super-app to generate the humongous volume so that it becomes cost effective for merchants to jump on board. In the case of Alipay, it charges abt 0.55% for merchant fee and it could do so because Alipay is a super-app which allows the Chinese consumer to pay for ride-hailing, food delivery, financial services etc, besides the payment at the checkout counters. The massive transaction volume arising from many services it is providing to its subscribers means that it could lower the transaction fees compared to the credit card companies. So what are the advantages of "碰一下“ when compared to "扫一下“ ? "扫一下“ reads the "Personal QR code" and so you do not need to key in the money amount like in the case of Singapore. In the case of "碰一下“ , it uses Near Field Communication (NFC) technology which is a set of short-range wireless technologies that typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less to initiate a connection. So one just needs to touch the NFC region of the merchant's payment device with his mobile phone for payment purpose. There is an authentication step that locks the mobile phone before you can use "碰一下“. This compares to the three-step payment procedure using "扫一下“ ： i. Locate the Alipay icon on your mobile phone. ii. Open it and retrieve the "Personal QR Code". iii. Bring the mobile phone near to the merchant's payment device for it to scan the "Personal QR code" generated by Alipay.. So it is very convenient to use 碰一下 and also very secured since if you lose your mobile phone, then the person who picks up your phone would just use the "扫一下" function if there is no auto-lock function enabled. 🔗#david_tbk_china ➽ #China posts #chinesetech #epayment #alibaba
