Recently, JD Pay and WeChat Pay have achieved interconnection, becoming the first third-party payment institution in the industry to open up both WeChat personal code and merchant code. Users can not only scan the WeChat collection code through the JD Finance App to make payments, but also get instant payment discounts every day. The vast majority of mobile payment users, represented by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, merchants and consumers, can benefit from this interconnection.
Yang Tao, Director of the Payment and Clearing Research Center of the Institute of Finance of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "JD Pay and WeChat Pay both have a huge active user base and are also influential leading companies in the payment industry. The strategic cooperation between the two platforms will further demonstrate the demonstration effect of interconnection, promote the industry to accelerate reform and achieve a win-win situation. ”
The realization of this interconnection does not add code cards, does not change the platform collection function, and provides users with more diversified payment options. Industry insiders believe that the interconnection has achieved three industry firsts, first, JD Pay has become the first payment company in the industry to open up the WeChat merchant code; the second is the interconnection with the most users in the industry; The third is the interconnection of the industry's first large-scale commercial promotion cooperation.
The lack of interoperability of payments hinders development
As a basic digital facility, mobile payment has played a role as a hub for consumer transaction applications and promoted the development of the real economy for a long time in the past. However, there is also the problem of "non-interoperable payment" of various platforms in the industry. In 2019, in the "Financial Technology (FinTech) Development Plan (2019-2021)" issued by the People's Bank of China, it was clearly proposed to promote the interconnection of barcode payment, break down the "barriers" of barcode payment services, and realize the mutual recognition and mutual scanning of barcode identification of different apps and merchants.
At present, the penetration rate of mobile payment in mainland China has reached 86%, leading the world. As of 2023, domestic banks and non-bank payment institutions will handle more than 1.4 trillion transactions, with a payment amount of nearly 90 billion yuan, serving more than 1 billion individuals and tens of millions of merchants.
Payment is related to the livelihood guarantee of residents and the development of the real economy. The mainland government attaches great importance to and earnestly promotes the "interconnection" of payments. The Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Non-bank Payment Institutions, which came into effect on May 1, 2024, clarifies the purpose of small-amount and convenient services for payment institutions. Emphasizing the maintenance of the order of fair competition is conducive to guiding the leading payment institutions to play a good role as "head geese", pay more attention to the interests of the industry, society and the public, take the lead in maintaining fair competition, promote interconnection, and expand ecological openness.
JD Pay and WeChat Pay are payment institutions with a wide user base in the industry, and the interconnection is a positive response and attempt under the guidance of Netlink Clearing Company and other institutions, and finally realized through the unified business rules and technical standards of NetUnion Clearing Company.
According to market information, some payment institutions have previously achieved interconnection with WeChat Pay at the level of personal code, and this is the first time to connect with JD Pay in the merchant code. Industry analysts pointed out that the opening of the merchant code involves multiple transaction entities such as merchants and individuals, covering more complex capital transactions such as collection and refund, which requires multi-party joint debugging, testing and repeated verification, which requires both technical capabilities and a lot of investment in funds and resources to promote the landing, and the technical accumulation of JD Pay and the ability to promote consumption have laid the foundation for this interconnection.
Real money subsidizes more than 1 billion users
As the scene of Internet code payment is more concentrated in micropayment, most of them are convenient places for residents' daily life and consumption, such as vegetable markets, breakfast shops, supermarkets and convenience stores, fruit stores, and various service outlets around the community, farmers' markets and trading markets widely distributed in urban and rural areas. Therefore, the interconnection between JD Pay and WeChat Pay has a very wide acceptance base.
According to market information, JD Pay has more than 500 million users, and WeChat Pay has more than 1 billion users. This makes this interconnection the most integrated user in the industry, so the vast majority of mobile payment users in China, represented by small, medium and micro enterprises, merchants and consumers, can benefit from this interconnection.
Specifically, users can use it in two ways: one is to open the JD Finance App, click the + sign on the upper right side "Scan", and scan the WeChat collection code to pay; The second is to enter the JD Finance App and search for "Scan Code Payment Offer" to enter the event page, and you can directly scan the WeChat collection code to pay. Both methods can be reduced every day, with a maximum discount of 30 yuan.
In order to facilitate daily use, JD Finance App also supports users to add functions to the mobile phone desktop as shortcuts, and open them to complete the payment with one click at any time. Not only that, in this event, users can receive cash subsidies of real money by adding desktops, completing payments, sharing friends, etc., up to 288 yuan.
Not only do consumers benefit from convenience, but so do businesses. For small businesses, in the past, it was necessary to guide customers to scan the corresponding QR code with the corresponding app, which took time and reduced the consumer experience. Now there is no need to add code cards, which can provide an additional payment option. In addition, this event also supports merchant sharing, and merchants can also get cash back when customers complete the payment through the page shared by the merchant.
The capabilities behind connectivity
JD Pay is one of the first payment institutions in China to obtain a payment license, and has been developing for more than ten years and has built a complete full-link, full-scenario product system, operation system and risk control system. As the carrier of this interconnection, JD Finance App has also served consumers for a long time, providing users with services including personal finance, consumer finance, payment services, insurance policies and other services, and has accumulated a lot of experience in consumer money use and management. This is an important foundation and prerequisite for JD Pay to become the first company to open up both WeChat personal code and merchant code.
Relying on the technical capabilities accumulated over the years, JD Pay has been able to reuse the payment platform components in this interconnection, which can support card maintenance, quota, marketing, risk control, reconciliation and other capabilities, ensuring user experience and achieving fast access and access.
Connectivity is not only a technical, operational, and pattern issue, but also requires a lot of resources to be realized. The relevant person in charge of JD Pay said, "In this interconnection, we focus on small-amount and convenient services, introduce the online advantages accumulated by JD over the years to the offline, and form a comprehensive interconnection covering WeChat personal code and merchant code, serving individual industrial and commercial households, small and medium-sized enterprises, and users who are subsidized by profits." He also said that this is an important milestone in the process of mobile payment and interconnection, which will promote the continuous adjustment and optimization of the industry structure, help fair competition in the market, and create a better industry pattern.
Yang Tao, director of the Payment and Clearing Research Center of the Institute of Finance of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also expressed his views on this, saying that "this is conducive to the optimization of the competition order of the industry and the improvement of the economies of scale of payment services."