China's Internet connectivity ushered in a historic moment.
On September 4th, Taobao and Tmall announced that in order to enhance consumer shopping experience, Taobao plans to add WeChat payment capability and adjust platform rules after the collection of opinions is completed. It is reported that this adjustment will cover all Taobao and Tmall merchants.
Regarding this, Tencent officials confirmed the news to Time Finance, who stated that the feature adaptation with Taobao platform merchants is currently being launched. Please refer to the Taobao platform announcement for the specific launch time. An insider close to Tencent told Time Finance, "We have recently notified the merchants within the platform, but it will still take some time to reach the user side
Alipay is currently the main payment service provider on Taobao. The access to WeChat payment may have a direct impact on the frequency of Alipay's use. On social platforms such as Weibo, some consumers directly exclaimed, "Can Alipay be uninstalled?"
Alipay responded that "openness, collaboration, innovation and sharing are the basic spirit of the Internet and the general trend of industry development", and mentioned that "Alipay will continue to deepen strategic cooperation with Taotian Group".
Double 11 is approaching, Taobao is eager for new traffic entry points
As early as the end of August, the Taote APP under Taotian, which focuses on the sinking market, was the first to integrate WeChat Pay.
Some users have reported that the Taote APP has added support for WeChat Pay. When placing an order, users can be redirected to the WeChat Pay interface, and after completing the payment, they can jump back to Taote. The user experience is no different from that of a normal third-party payment service, rather than the awkward and complicated methods of scanning QR codes for payment or sending links to ask others to pay on their behalf.
This is not the first time that WeChat Pay has appeared on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms. In November last year, WeChat Pay appeared on the payment page of Taobao platform, causing quite a sensation.
However, it was a small-scale and restricted opening. Among them, the "WeChat QR code payment" function is mainly targeted at users who have not bound their cards or have no balance on the Taobao platform. For users who use WeChat Pay on Taobao, the single payment amount cannot exceed 300 yuan.
For Taotian Group, it is at another turning point in its business development. In the year long low price strategy, Taobao seems to have intentions of breaking away from the tug of war of price competition. After this year's 618 shopping festival, Taobao made multiple strategic adjustments, including weakening the system of "five-star pricing power" allocation and returning it to GMV allocation.
Recently, Taotian Group has taken the lead in launching the first shot of e-commerce's "anti internal competition" strategy, optimizing the refund only mode and attempting to regain the initiative in e-commerce competition.
According to Alibaba's latest financial report, in the second quarter of 2024, Taobao Group's revenue was 113.337 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1%; Adjusted EBITA also decreased by 1% year-on-year to 48.81 billion yuan.
Faced with a slowdown in business growth and Pinduoduo's strong catch-up, the alliance with WeChat Pay will undoubtedly increase the business growth of Taobao. In addition, Taotian Group's future revenue growth is still based on optimizing user experience.
According to a report by 36Kr, after Taobao partnered with Tencent to launch WeChat Pay this year, it is expected that Taobao will add millions of daily DAUs, mainly targeting elderly users aged 55 and above and young users aged 18 to 26.
On the other hand, as a latecomer in the e-commerce industry, Pinduoduo has quickly achieved user fission and growth through the huge traffic entry point of WeChat.
In the first half of 2024, Pinduoduo's revenue reached 183.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 104.9%. Time Finance has learned that Pinduoduo has been connected to WeChat payment and Alipay.
"This is the continuation of the Internet wall breaking action. Getting through WeChat payment will help Taotian Group expand its user boundaries, break the previously closed system, and improve the user experience." Chen Tao, a senior analyst in the circulation industry of Analysys, told Time Finance that in his view, subsequent major Internet platforms will undoubtedly choose to increase the openness.
Ding Daoshi, an Internet analyst, said to Time Finance that Taobao's access to WeChat payment will greatly facilitate those consumers who are accustomed to using WeChat payment, reduce the obstacles in the payment process, improve the shopping experience, and is expected to attract more potential users and promote user growth and activity. At the same time, it can also be seen as preparing for the upcoming "Double 11".
For WeChat Pay, as one of the largest e-commerce platforms in China, Taobao's integration with WeChat Pay will greatly expand its payment scenarios, increase transaction volume and user stickiness, and further consolidate its leading position in the mobile payment field, "said Ding Daoshi.
Is the closure history of large factories coming to an end?
The separatist war of Internet giants began in 2013, when Taobao was the dominant player in e-commerce. According to data from Analysys, the online retail market reached 1.84 trillion yuan in 2013, with Alibaba accounting for 78.5%.
However, Taobao is restricted in the territory of WeChat, and its shopping links are blocked by WeChat. The former has to introduce a "Taobao password" with a special identification code to cope.
At that time, it was the period of business expansion for Alibaba and Tencent, and the two companies extended their tentacles into various fields, from local life, ride hailing, e-commerce to new retail. The two sides engaged in close combat and strictly divided their respective territories.
In September 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology required Internet enterprises to rectify and block website links. Alibaba and Tencent have repeatedly stated their intention to open up cooperation with each other. Since then, the major Internet platforms have started the process of gradual and small-scale exploration in each business, from sharing their links to directly accessing the payment system, the settlement of official business accounts, and then to fully opening up the ecosystem.
Tiktok and Tencent also broke the ice historically. In December of last year, in the first live broadcast of Tiktok launched by famous game anchor Zhang Daxian, Tencent Games gave the authorization of the new game "Yuanmeng Star". Until January of this year, it gave the authorization of old games such as "King's Glory".
Since this year, the major Internet platforms have accelerated the pace of interconnection, not only breaking through the barriers of various scenarios, but also opening up more and more widely.
At the end of January, the Xianyu WeChat mini program was launched. Buyers can place orders for second-hand goods through WeChat, and the payment received by the seller will be transferred to the "Xianyu WeChat Collection Balance" and directly withdrawn to the bank card. In early March, DingTalk released a new version that added the ability to use DingTalk meetings on WeChat.
On May 20th, JD Pay and WeChat Pay achieved interconnectivity. Market information shows that the number of WeChat Pay users has exceeded 1 billion, and JD Pay users have exceeded 500 million. This will be the most extensive interconnectivity among users in the industry so far.
"The cooperation between Taobao and WeChat payment marks an important step for Internet giants to break down industry barriers and promote connectivity, which helps all parties and Internet giants to establish closer cooperation and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results." Ding Daoshi said to Times Finance.
In the current era of peak traffic and slowing growth, it is difficult for any company to create a traffic myth in a single ecosystem. Choosing an open ecosystem and accepting shared stock users naturally becomes the optimal solution for major companies.