Today, the long-awaited integration of WeChat Pay into Taobao is officially launched. Starting from today, all Taobao and Tmall merchants will gradually open up WeChat Pay, and they are currently inviting merchants in batches. Today, reporters from Cai Lianshe found that Alipay is still the mainstream settlement method, with only a few merchants accepting WeChat Pay, and consumers are gradually being allowed to try it out.

Industry insiders believe that this move will not change the market landscape of online payments, but it will benefit consumers. Users who prefer to use WeChat Pay will have the opportunity to become new customers of Taobao and Tmall merchants. For WeChat Pay, Taobao's huge user base and transaction volume can also create new growth opportunities.

Taobao merchants will gradually adopt WeChat Pay in batches.

Earlier, Taobao announced that it would add WeChat Pay capabilities, which will take effect on September 12, 2024. Today, reporters from Cai Lianshe found that Alipay is still the mainstream payment method, and only a few merchants have activated WeChat Pay. At the same time, consumers are also gradually being allowed to try it out. Today, some buyers can already make payments using WeChat Pay, but not all consumers see the WeChat Pay option on the payment page for the same product.

"We are currently inviting merchants in batches to adopt WeChat Pay, and the initial batch of invited merchants does not have a fixed category, so it is difficult to specify the exact opening time. Consumers should refer to the payment page for accurate information." Taobao customer service told reporters from Cai Lianshe today. Consumers do not need to activate WeChat Pay on their end. Once the WeChat Pay capability is fully activated for platform merchants, it will automatically take effect for consumers.

"Merchants can see the invitation to activate WeChat Pay in the Alipay seller's backend, and once agreed, they can immediately start using it. The invitations will be sent out in batches from today, and it will be fully activated in the end." Taobao customer service said.

Taobao and Tmall responded that they will always adhere to the principle of open cooperation, actively explore interoperability and cooperation with various platforms, continuously improve the shopping experience for consumers, and make shopping more convenient, enjoyable, and efficient for consumers. With the addition of WeChat Pay, Taobao will upgrade its platform rules, mainly changing the expressions related to payment service providers, accounts, balances, and transaction amounts to "payment institutions", "payment accounts", "balance of payment accounts", and "transaction amounts of orders".

After the integration, both Taobao and WeChat have gained new users.

Industry insiders believe that the comprehensive integration of WeChat payment will not change the landscape of the online payment market, but it will be beneficial to consumers. "Considering the business volume, this is the first time that major players have connected, so this successful integration is indeed significant. Considering users' payment habits on the Taobao platform and the history of diversification in payments on Taobao, it is expected that this integration will not have a significant impact on existing payment services (e.g. Alipay)." Su Xiaorui, Senior Researcher at Suxi Intelligent Research, pointed out.

According to the "2024 Semi-annual China Mobile Internet Power Value List" published by the third-party institution QuestMobile, in the second quarter of this year, WeChat ranked first with 1.052 billion MAU (Monthly Active Users), while Taobao and Alipay ranked second and third with 0.927 billion and 0.893 billion MAU respectively. Most merchants believe that integrating WeChat payment will help expand customer acquisition channels. Users who previously preferred using WeChat payment will have the opportunity to become new customers for Taobao and Tmall merchants. For WeChat payment, the enormous user base and transaction volume of Taobao can also become new incremental scenarios.

Xue Hongyan, Deputy Dean of the Star Map Institute of Finance, told Financial Association Society reporters that the interoperability of payment tools and commercial ecology can to some extent break the monopoly status of specific payment tools within closed ecosystems, giving the choice to users and helping to improve the user experience. Conversely, new payment tools can bring new users, which is also bullish for the long-term healthy development of the commercial ecosystem. Therefore, the comprehensive introduction of WeChat Pay by Taobao is a win-win situation for the platform, payment tools, and users.

Broadcom analyst Wang Pengbo pointed out that the cooperation between Taobao and WeChat payment has a relatively small impact on both parties' businesses, and an even smaller impact on Alipay. In terms of actual effect, Taobao has not been the first to introduce more payment companies, and Alipay has not been the first to provide new payment channels for Taobao. The payment page on Taobao still prefers Alipay, and Alipay will continue to provide services for Taobao in the future.