金融时报:中国移动支付大战

中国移动支付大战

为吸引用户阿里和腾讯都已支出巨额补贴。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

high-stakes高风险的

subsidise资助（等于subsidize）；给……补助金['sʌbsɪdaɪz]

de-escalation降级

affiliate隶属的机构[ə'fɪlɪeɪt]

withdrawal提款；取消；退股[wɪð'drɔː(ə)l]

merchant商人，批发商['mɜːtʃ(ə)nt]

Tencent backs down in mobile payments war with Alibaba（382 words）

By Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai

Chinese online gaming and social networking group Tencent has pulled back from a high-stakes battle with ecommerce company Alibaba for control of China's mobile payments market, after spending billions of renminbi on subsidies to attract users.

Last month the company began charging users for transferring funds between WeChat Pay — the payments service linked to Tencent's popular instant messaging app — and traditional bank accounts. Previously, Tencent had subsidised the transfers by absorbing the associated bank transaction fees rather than passing them on to users. A WeChat wallet feature also allowed transfers between different commercial banks.

In January alone, Tencent spent Rmb300m ($46m) on bank transaction fees, the company revealed in its annual report. For the fourth quarter, “other” revenue expenses rose 153 per cent to Rmb1.5bn, an increase it said was “mainly driven” by bank transaction fees accrued by WeChat Pay.

Pony Ma, Tencent's chairman, said that as of March, when the company began imposing user fees, operating losses from WeChat Pay were “brought under control”.

The shift marks a partial de-escalation of its market-share battle with Alipay, the payment service run by Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Financial.

Competition between the companies intensified at the start of the lunar new year 2015, when both spent billions on “red envelope” cash giveaways to lure new users. An earlier duel between the internet heavyweights over car-hailing apps began with a war of subsidies for riders and drivers but ended with a merger of Tencent-backed Didi and Alibaba's Kuaidi.

The introduction of user fees is not purely a cost-saving measure. Analysts say that imposing fees on withdrawals will make cash stored in the WeChat wallet “stickier”.

“The fees create a barrier to funds leaving, so it incentivises users to keep their money inside the WeChat ecosystem,” says Li Zhefeng, analyst at iResearch in Beijing.

Tencent's subsidies helped WeChat attract millions of users and boosted transaction volume in a year that witnessed the explosion of online-to-offline mobile payments encent has little to show for the money it spent. Its payment affiliate, Caifutong, prto merchants such as supermarkets and restaurants.

But in terms of market share, Tocessed 20 per cent of Chinese third-party online payments last year, compared with Alipay's 48 per cent, according to iResearch. That's up only half a percentage point from a year earlier.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How to subsidized the transfer fee for WeChat Pay before last month?

A.charged users

B.from state subsidies

C.absorbed from banks

D.donation from shareholders

答案(1)

2.What is the main reason of “other” revenue expenses rose for the fourth quarter?

A.policy changed

B.bank transaction fees

C.lacked of user volume

D.not mentioned

答案(2)

3.When the competition between Alipay and WeChat Pay were intensified?

A.lunar new year 2015

B.last month

C.in January

D.when Didi and Kuaidi have been merged.

答案(3)

4.Who have controlled the mobile payments market in China according to the article?

A.WeChat Pay

B.Alipay

C.Caifutong

D.Taobao

答案(4)

* * *

(1)答案：C.absorbed from banks

解释：此前腾讯通过吸收相关银行手续费（而不是将其转嫁给用户）来补贴这类转账操作。

(2)答案：B.bank transaction fees

解释：对于去年第四季度，“其他”业务的收入成本同比增长153%，腾讯称，这一增加主要是由微信支付发生的银行手续费驱动的。

(3)答案：A.lunar new year 2015

解释：两家公司之间的竞争在2015年农历新年加剧，当时双方都砸下巨款发送“红包”以吸引新用户。

(4)答案：B.Alipay

解释：艾瑞咨询的数据显示，“支付宝”去年处理了中国48%的第三方在线支付。由此可推断出结论，淘宝并不是移动支付平台。