WeChat brings new weapon to mobile pay war

The head-to-head rivalry between Tencent and Alibaba dates back to July, when Alibaba blocked application programming interface (API) access to marketing services offered by members of its Taobao affiliate network on WeChat.

By fending off competitors, Alibaba also is gearing up for a 24-hour sale to encourage the use of mobile phones for everyday purchases.

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Set for March 8, people will be offered various discounts if they pre-order meals, movies and other services using Alibaba's mobile app, Mobile Taobao. The sale is being promoted as a mobile e-commerce version of Tmall.com's 11.11 Shopping Festival, according to a company statement.

Taobao has teamed up with a total of 37 department stores, including 1,500 in-store brand outlets, 230 karaoke parlors, 288 movie theaters and 800 restaurants in eight cities across China.

Customers are required to book goods and services in the days leading up to Saturday, when they can redeem their purchases, said Ying Hong, marketing director of Mobile Taobao.

"With smartphones as common as they are today, people have truly entered the era of mobile shopping," said Ying.

For instance, customers can log onto their Mobile Taobao apps to buy movie tickets for just 3.8 yuan during the festival. Up to 2 million cheap tickets will be up for grabs during the promotion.

Customers now can pay at registers by opening the Alipay Wallet and using either sound wave payments or barcode scanning, said Chen Shaodong, chief executive officer of Intime department store, which is participating in the gala.

Mobile Taobao now boasts some 400 million registered users. According to Fan Zhiming, head of Alipay Wallet, about one-third of Alipay's daily transactions are conducted using mobile devices, a jump of 800 percent year-on-year.

More than half of Internet users in China have used their mobile phones to pay for goods and services, said a study by consultancy KPMG in February. In comparison, fewer than 20 percent US Internet users have done so.

 

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