The current domestic third-party payment market structure has been basically determined, and the companies that can survive in the market can be roughly divided into three camps.
(1) Giants that focus on the C-end consumer market. The “Matthew effect” in this market is very obvious, and only a few can survive in the end. There is basically no suspense about the victory of Alipay and Tenpay, as their strength and market share are obvious. Among other players, UnionPay’s Cloud QuickPass is said to have performed very “amazingly” during the “Double 12” period just passed in 2017, but whether it can maintain long-term growth and take a larger market share is still unknown.
(2) Sub-departments that mainly serve the group’s internal business. The scale of many companies’ internal business is very large. As long as they understand their own business, they can live a comfortable life even without external business. Among the companies that apply for or acquire payment licenses, there are many that hold similar ideas, such as New Meituan, Suning, Gome, etc. Rather than saying that they are third-party payment companies, it is better to say that they are sub-departments within the group responsible for payment business. Among them, Ping An One Wallet has performed well. Relying on the resource advantages of Ping An Group, its market share has been steadily increasing in recent years, which is not easy.
(3) Technology service providers for B-end enterprises. Other third-party payment companies either focus on vertical market segments or transform into technology service providers. The vertical market segments will also be affected by user habits and penetrated by giants, so it is not a long-term solution. The strategy of YeePay is to decisively transform. It is no longer completely dependent on transaction fees for revenue. Technology and service income are becoming its new revenue and profit growth points. It has also deployed in related fields such as finance and marketing, and has basically realized the transformation from a third-party payment company to a financial technology service provider.
In fact, the profit margin of the enterprise service market is much higher than that of third-party payment fees. Due to the high opportunity cost of changing suppliers, the business is relatively stable. However, the domestic market has not yet fully grown. This is both a shortcoming of the current market and a future business opportunity. After having corporate users, third-party companies can not only obtain corresponding technology service fee income, but also bring themselves a part of payment business.
The “Belt and Road” policy is favorable and opportunities are rare, especially market opportunities such as cross-border payments. Many independent third-party payment companies should seize this rare opportunity to enter the enterprise service market, accelerate the pace of enterprise transformation, and become Internet financial service providers with core competitiveness.