With so many mobile payment options available, which one will dominate the market?

In the middle of last month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in visited China and had a citizen breakfast in Beijing. He also tried out mobile payment by scanning a QR code with his mobile phone and expressed his admiration for it.

Friends who have been abroad have complained that it is more convenient to shop and settle accounts in China. A mobile phone can solve all payment problems, and there is no need for a wallet or bank card. This is not possible abroad.

In China, although there are payment methods launched by UnionPay, major banks and other Internet companies, and even early pioneers in this field, operators have their own payment methods, people prefer WeChat Pay or Alipay.

Domestic payment habits have been completely changed in a short period of time

Statistics show that in the past four years, China's annual mobile payment transaction volume has increased from 1.3 trillion to 35.33 trillion yuan, more than 30 times. In 2017, the overall transaction volume is expected to maintain a 100% growth rate, reaching 75 trillion yuan.

In China, mobile payment is indeed enjoying a "golden age". Even vegetable markets and street stalls have QR code payment buttons. People's payment habits have changed. It doesn't matter whether you bring your wallet or not. With a mobile phone in hand, you don't have to worry.

Alipay and WeChat Pay are the winners

Some terminal manufacturers are planning mobile payments. Apple has Apple Pay and Samsung has Samsung Pay. Google also recently announced that it will merge Android Pay and Google Wallet into one product, branded "Google Pay". Huawei also has its own mobile payment service, Huawei Pay.

Even UnionPay, major banks, JD.com, Suning and other Internet companies have begun to make efforts in the field of mobile payments.

For example, on December 11, 2017, China UnionPay, together with commercial banks, payment institutions and other industry parties, jointly released the banking industry unified APP "Yunsuanfu", intending to get a share of the mobile payment market. It is understood that on the "Yunsuanfu" APP, consumers can bind and manage various bank accounts, use the mobile payment services and preferential rights of various banks, including UnionPay QR code scanning payment, various scenarios of consumption payment, and opening of Class II and III accounts.

How it will develop further is still unknown.

But currently in the mobile payment market, Alipay and WeChat Pay occupy a duopoly position, basically controlling more than 90% of the market share.

Operators started early but failed to catch the wave

Internet companies, mobile phone manufacturers, UnionPay, major banks, etc. all want to seize their own territory in the mobile payment battlefield.

But we should not forget that operators actually started earlier than Alipay and WeChat Pay, and much earlier. However, operators did not carry forward the development, although they did innovate and develop well.

China Mobile's Hebao Payment: In the just-announced "139" cooperation plan, Hebao Payment ranks first among the nine major capability applications, becoming an indispensable part of China Mobile's strategy to build an open capability system and stimulate the vitality of industrial innovation and development.

According to relevant statistics, Hebao Payment currently has more than 200 million users.

At the beginning of 2017, China Mobile released the "China Mobile 4G+ Mobile Phone Product White Paper", which stipulates: Promote the enrichment of RCS and NFC products, and at the same time recommend support for NFC functions, and strategic products must support it.

In addition, China Mobile has urged the top five manufacturers to launch at least two NFC terminals in the price range of RMB 1,000 and above. Products supporting NFC must adopt the NFC-SWP solution based on the GSMA unified standard.

China Telecom Wing Payment: China Telecom regards Internet financial business as one of its business priorities in the 3.0 stage of transformation, and has established a wholly-owned subsidiary to carry out related business. "Wing Payment" is its core product.

At present, YiPay's business has covered nearly 400 major cities in all provinces across the country, with more than 3.38 million offline cooperative merchants and 150 online cooperative e-commerce platforms. Recently, YiPay announced the launch of the "Dongfeng Action". The "Dongfeng Action" will organize the entire ecosystem to invest more than 10 billion resources, connect more than 10 million active merchants, and work together to create a 100 billion+ consumer market.

China Unicom WoPay: China Unicom obtained a payment license through Unicom Payment Co., Ltd. and launched the "WoPay" business. China Unicom WoPay said that by 2018, WoPay will become a large-scale Internet financial enterprise with operator characteristics, and its annual transaction volume will exceed 500 billion yuan.

But, in the end, none of the competitors are stronger than Alipay and WeChat Pay. At least, the duopoly has not been broken yet.

In addition, the situation is basically the same in China. Precisely because overseas payments are not as convenient as domestic payments, it also shows that entering overseas markets may bring a "second spring" to some companies.

At present, China UnionPay has already spread all over the world due to the natural advantages of bank cards; Ant Financial has developed local e-wallets with partners in India, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia, with more than 200 million overseas users.