Chinese third-party payment processor Alipay will eliminate free money-transfer services between some Alipay users and will increase fees for others. Beginning on 3 December, transactions below CNY 20,000 (US $3,263), which were previously free, will be charged at a rate of 0.1 percent. Transactions of CNY 20,000 and over, which were previously charged at 0.5 percent, will now cost 0.1 percent, as well. The minimum fee for any transaction will be CNY 0.5 (US $0.08), and the maximum fee will be CNY 10 (US $1.63). Services subject to the fee include account transfers, received funds and rent payments. User transfers made via Alipay’s mobile app, Alipay Wallet, will continue to be free of charge and not subject to transaction amount limits.

Tarifica’s Take

Could this change in Alipay’s fee policies indicate that its P2P payment system has reached maturity and that the processor, having acquired a loyal customer base, can now move its users over to a more revenue-generating structure? Likely yes, but we note with interest the fact that payments made through the mobile app will stay free of fees and limits. We have had our eye recently on the exponential growth of mobile-wallet solutions in markets around the world, especially those in which fewer people have bank accounts than have smartphones, and mobile devices outnumber PCs. Peer-to-peer payments are a significant component of this emerging cashless economy, and it seems logical to us that Alipay would want to continue to promote the app-powered mobile aspect of its P2P payment services by remaining generous with its terms of use.