Recently, JD Pay and WeChat Pay have achieved interconnectivity, becoming the first third-party payment institution in the industry to simultaneously connect WeChat personal codes and merchant codes. Users can not only scan the WeChat payment code through the JD Financial App for payment, but also receive daily payment discounts. The vast majority of mobile payment users, represented by small and medium-sized enterprise merchants and consumers, can benefit from this interconnection.
Yang Tao, Director of the Payment and Clearing Research Center at the Institute of Finance, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "JD Pay and WeChat Pay both have a huge active user base and are influential leading enterprises in the payment industry. Strategic cooperation between the two platforms will further demonstrate the exemplary effect of interconnectivity, promote industry reform and achieve win-win results."
The implementation of interconnectivity this time aims to provide users with more diverse payment options without adding code plates, changing the platform's payment function. Industry insiders believe that this interconnection has achieved three industry firsts. Firstly, JD Pay has become the first payment company in the industry to connect WeChat merchant codes; The second is the most frequent user interaction in the industry, which is interconnectivity; The third is the first large-scale commercial promotion and cooperation in the industry for interconnectivity.
Disconnectivity in payments hinders development
As a basic digital infrastructure, mobile payment has played a pivotal role in consumer transaction applications for a long time, driving the development of the real economy. However, there is also a problem of "payment incompatibility" among various platforms in the industry. In the "FinTech Development Plan (2019-2021)" issued by the People's Bank of China in 2019, it was explicitly proposed to promote the interconnection of barcode payments, break down the "barriers" of barcode payment services, and achieve mutual recognition and scanning of barcode identifiers between different apps and merchants.
Currently, China's mobile payment penetration rate has reached 86%, leading the world. As of 2023, the total number of transactions processed by domestic banks and non bank payment institutions has exceeded 1.4 trillion, with a payment amount of nearly 90 billion yuan, serving over 1 billion individuals and tens of millions of merchants.
Pay for the living security of related residents and provide services for the development of the real economy. The Chinese government attaches great importance to and effectively promotes payment interconnectivity. In the "Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Non Bank Payment Institutions" officially implemented on May 1, 2024, the purpose of providing small and convenient services for payment institutions is clarified. Emphasizing the maintenance of fair competition order is conducive to guiding top payment institutions to play a good role as "leading geese", paying more attention to industry interests, social interests, and public interests, taking the lead in maintaining fair competition, promoting interconnectivity, and expanding ecological openness.
JD Pay and WeChat Pay are payment institutions with a wide user base in the industry. This interconnection is a positive response and attempt under the guidance of institutions such as NetEase Clearing Company, and ultimately achieved through the unified business rules and technical standards of NetEase Clearing Company.
According to market information, some payment institutions have previously achieved personal code level interconnection with WeChat Pay, and this is the first time that they have connected with JD Pay in terms of merchant codes. Industry analysts point out that the integration of merchant codes involves multiple transaction entities such as merchants and individuals, covering more complex fund transactions such as receipts and refunds. It requires joint debugging, testing, and repeated verification from multiple parties, as well as technical capabilities and investment of a large amount of funds and resources to promote implementation. JD Pay's technological accumulation and ability to promote consumption have laid the foundation for this interconnection.
Real gold and silver subsidies for over 1 billion users
Because the Internet code payment scene is more concentrated on micro payment, most of them are convenient places for residents' daily life and consumption, such as vegetable markets, breakfast stores, supermarket convenience stores, fruit stores, various service outlets around the community, agricultural trade markets and trading markets widely distributed in urban and rural areas. So the interconnectivity between JD Pay and WeChat Pay this time has a very broad foundation in terms of acceptance end.
According to market information, JD Pay has over 500 million users, while WeChat Pay has over 1 billion users. This makes this interconnection the most user interaction in the industry, so the vast majority of mobile payment users in China, represented by small and medium-sized enterprise merchants and consumers, can benefit from this interconnection.
Specifically, users can use it in two ways: first, open the JD Financial App, click on the+sign on the upper right side "Scan", and scan the WeChat payment code for payment; The second is to enter the JD Financial App and search for "Scan Code Payment Discount". After entering the activity page, you can directly scan the WeChat payment code for payment. Both methods can be used to reduce daily expenses, with a maximum immediate reduction of 30 yuan.
For the convenience of daily use, the JD Financial App also supports users to add functions as shortcuts to their mobile desktop, allowing them to open and complete payments with just one click at any time. Moreover, in this event, users can receive real cash subsidies of up to 288 yuan for actions such as adding desktops, completing payments, and sharing friends.
Not only can consumers benefit from convenience, but businesses can also benefit from it. For small businesses, in the past, it was necessary to guide customers to use the corresponding app to scan the corresponding QR code for payment, which not only took time but also reduced the consumption experience. Nowadays, there is no need to add a QR code to provide an additional payment option. In addition, this event also supports merchant sharing. After customers complete the payment through the merchant sharing page, the merchant can also receive cash rebates.
The capabilities behind interconnectivity
JD Pay is one of the first payment institutions in China to obtain payment licenses. With over a decade of development, it has established a comprehensive product system, operation system, and risk control system for all links and scenarios. As the carrier of this interconnection, JD Financial App also provides long-term services to consumers, including personal finance, consumer finance, payment services, insurance policies, and other services. It has accumulated a lot of experience for consumers to use and manage money. This is an important foundation and prerequisite for JD Pay to become the first to simultaneously connect WeChat personal codes and merchant codes.
Relying on years of service accumulation and technical capabilities, JD Pay has been able to reuse payment platform components in this interconnection, supporting card maintenance, quota, marketing, risk control, reconciliation and other capabilities, ensuring user experience while achieving fast access and connectivity.
Interconnection is not only a technical, operational, and landscape issue, but also requires a significant investment of resources to truly achieve it. The person in charge of JD Pay stated, "This interconnection, we focus on small and convenient services, introduce JD's online advantages accumulated over the years to offline, and form a comprehensive interconnection covering WeChat personal codes and merchant codes, serving individual businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises, and offering subsidies to users." He also stated that this is an important milestone in the process of mobile payment and interconnection, which will promote the continued adjustment and optimization of industry structure, assist in fair market competition, and create a better industry pattern.
Yang Tao, Director of the Payment and Clearing Research Center at the Institute of Finance, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also expressed his own views on this, stating that "this is conducive to optimizing the competitive order of the industry and improving the economies of scale of payment services.".