Third-party payment is an important part of the modern financial services industry, and it is also the underlying support force and driving force for the rapid development of China’s Internet economy. The third-party payment platform not only performs outstandingly in filling the gaps in banking service functions and improving the efficiency of financial transactions, but also plays an important role in improving the modern financial system and perfecting modern financial functions. With the rise of domestic e-commerce, payment platforms established by some information service companies have also begun to emerge. As an emerging industry with new technologies, new formats and new models, third-party payment has broad market demand prospects.
The “2015-2020 China Third-Party Payment Industry Market Outlook and Investment Strategy Planning Analysis Report” believes that online shopping is the application field with the largest share in third-party payment, and third-party payment usually takes this field as the entry point for payment. However, with the horizontal business expansion of various operators and the increase in the number of segmented payment fields, the share of online shopping online payment will remain at around 40%.
The core business of China’s third-party payment market is the online payment market. The market entered an accelerated development stage in 2004 and experienced explosive growth in 2008 and 2009. In particular, the People’s Bank of China issued the “Administrative Measures for Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions” and the “Implementation Rules for the Administrative Measures for Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions” in 2010, which ended the original growth period of the third-party payment industry and formally included it in the national regulatory system, giving it a legal identity. In the future, the third-party payment industry will face a pattern of coexistence of high industry concentration and differentiated advantages, and will usher in a breakthrough in the transformation of the profit model, which will also sound the gun for the elimination of the domestic payment industry.
The People’s Bank of China issued the “Administrative Measures for Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions” (hereinafter referred to as the “Administrative Measures”), which for the first time made clear provisions on the market access, administrative licensing, supervision and management of non-financial institutions engaged in payment services such as online payment, prepaid card issuance and management, and bank card acquisition. Subsequently, the People’s Bank of China issued the “Implementation Rules for the Administrative Measures for Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions”.
According to the “Administrative Measures”, non-financial institution payment services refer to non-financial institutions acting as intermediaries to provide some or all of the following monetary funds transfer services between payees and payees: online payment, issuance and acceptance of prepaid cards, bank card acquiring, and other payment services determined by the People’s Bank of China.
Among them, online payment refers to the act of transferring monetary funds between payees and payees based on public or private networks, including currency exchange, Internet payment, mobile phone payment, fixed-line payment, digital TV payment, etc. Among them, mobile phone payment includes SMS payment, STK payment, USSD payment, WAP payment and other types.
Prepaid cards refer to prepaid values issued for the purpose of profit to purchase goods or services outside the issuing institution, including prepaid cards issued in the form of cards, passwords, etc. using technologies such as magnetic stripes and chips.
Bank card acquiring refers to the act of collecting monetary funds on behalf of designated merchants of bank cards through point-of-sale (POS) terminals, etc.