Tencent backs down in mobile payments war with Alibaba（382 words）

By Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai

Chinese online gaming and social networking group Tencent has pulled back from a high-stakes battle with ecommerce company Alibaba for control of China's mobile payments market, after spending billions of renminbi on subsidies to attract users.

Last month the company began charging users for transferring funds between WeChat Pay — the payments service linked to Tencent's popular instant messaging app — and traditional bank accounts. Previously, Tencent had subsidised the transfers by absorbing the associated bank transaction fees rather than passing them on to users. A WeChat wallet feature also allowed transfers between different commercial banks.

In January alone, Tencent spent Rmb300m ($46m) on bank transaction fees, the company revealed in its annual report. For the fourth quarter, “other” revenue expenses rose 153 per cent to Rmb1.5bn, an increase it said was “mainly driven” by bank transaction fees accrued by WeChat Pay.

Pony Ma, Tencent's chairman, said that as of March, when the company began imposing user fees, operating losses from WeChat Pay were “brought under control”.

The shift marks a partial de-escalation of its market-share battle with Alipay, the payment service run by Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Financial.

Competition between the companies intensified at the start of the lunar new year 2015, when both spent billions on “red envelope” cash giveaways to lure new users. An earlier duel between the internet heavyweights over car-hailing apps began with a war of subsidies for riders and drivers but ended with a merger of Tencent-backed Didi and Alibaba's Kuaidi.

The introduction of user fees is not purely a cost-saving measure. Analysts say that imposing fees on withdrawals will make cash stored in the WeChat wallet “stickier”.

“The fees create a barrier to funds leaving, so it incentivises users to keep their money inside the WeChat ecosystem,” says Li Zhefeng, analyst at iResearch in Beijing.

Tencent's subsidies helped WeChat attract millions of users and boosted transaction volume in a year that witnessed the explosion of online-to-offline mobile payments encent has little to show for the money it spent. Its payment affiliate, Caifutong, prto merchants such as supermarkets and restaurants.

But in terms of market share, Tocessed 20 per cent of Chinese third-party online payments last year, compared with Alipay's 48 per cent, according to iResearch. That's up only half a percentage point from a year earlier.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1．How to subsidized the transfer fee for WeChat Pay before last month?

A．charged users

B．from state subsidies

C．absorbed from banks

D．donation from shareholders

答案

2．What is the main reason of “other” revenue expenses rose for the fourth quarter?

A．policy changed

B．bank transaction fees

C．lacked of user volume

D．not mentioned

答案

3．When the competition between Alipay and WeChat Pay were intensified?

A．lunar new year 2015

B．last month

C．in January

D．when Didi and Kuaidi have been merged.

答案

4．Who have controlled the mobile payments market in China according to the article?

A．WeChat Pay

B．Alipay

C．Caifutong

D．Taobao

答案