Ant Tells Shanghai Bourse Alipay Can’t Be Compared With WeChat Pay
Zhang Yushuo
DATE:  Sep 10 2020
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Ant Tells Shanghai Bourse Alipay Can’t Be Compared With WeChat Pay Ant Tells Shanghai Bourse Alipay Can’t Be Compared With WeChat Pay

(Yicai Global) Sept. 10 -- Chinese fintech giant Ant Group,which could raise a world record USD30 billion in its upcominginitial public offering, said its digital payments business Alipay is not the same thing as that of its rival Tencent Holdings.

WeChat Pay also provides digital payment services, but it is different and not comparable with Alipay’s digital payment and merchant services, the Hangzhou-based company said in reply to a question on competition from the Shanghai Stock Exchange, according to a bourse statement yesterday.

The two services had 82 percent of China’s online payments market between them at the end of the first quarter, with Alipay on 48.44 percent and WeChat Pay on 33.59 percent.

Alipay had 711 million monthly active users and over 80 million merchants at the end of June, Ant said, noting that it now covers 1,000 life services and two million mini programs.The firm has also partnered with more than 350 financial institutions in digital and fintech platforms to provide credit loan, wealth management and insurance products.

“These open technology platforms offer innovative and unique business, and no companies are comparable with them,” Ant said.

Ant said its advantage in wealth management platforms lies in its partnership with most of China’s funds, brokers, insurers and banks to provide more than 6,000 wealth management products.

Its innovative business includes the consumer credit platform Huabei rolled out in 2014, spare change management platform Yu’ebao, and return freight insurance for e-commerce scenarios. Ant chain technical services and financial cloud services are new, and the industry is still in the exploratory stage regarding business model, targets, service content and profit-making model.

“So no mature companies are comparable with the firm in these fields,” Ant said.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange also said Ant’s listing application is scheduled for regulatory review on Sept. 18, bringing it a step closer to listing on its Nasdaq-style board. China’s biggest digital payments provider plans a dual listing on the Star Market and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Set up in 2004, Ant started out as a third-party payment platform called Alipay for Alibaba Group Holding’s online shopping website Taobao and became an independent company in 2014.

Editor: Peter Thomas

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Keywords:   Ant Group,WeChat,Tencent