Recently, according to the news leaked on the internet, Weibo will integrate the original payment interface to launch “unified checkout counter”.
All applications on Weibo can access the unified one to enjoy payment service in different scenarios. Besides, such “unified checkout counter” can adapt to a certain payment scenario automatically according to merchant’s business and recognize the client-side version to assign payment channel.
In July 2014, Sina Weibo fully opened its payment system and provided order acceptance service for verified company accounts. Once the application is approved, merchants can post content with product card on Weibo, so other users can buy such product with clicking on the card on Weibo.
However, Weibo covers desktop and mobile devices which indicates users can make payment in various devices. In order to adapt to different payment scenarios, companies will choose corresponding interface which may affect service efficiency. With the launching of “unified checkout counter”, companies only need to access one interface to realize payment coverage in different scenarios.
One Weibo staff did a demonstration with a product card posted on Weibo; users can buy the product on mobile device or desktop. In addition Weibo URL can be shared in other applications, and users who are interested in the product can use Weibo payment service without visiting Weibo.
The person who takes charge of Weibo business tools said, “the purpose to launch ‘unified checkout counter’ is to improve efficiency and service quality for company accounts”. As of early December 2014, Weibo shops have accessed the “unified checkout counter’， and other applications will have access to it soon.
Weibo monthly active users (“MAUs”) were 167 million as of September 30, 2014. 82% Sina Weibo users do online shopping in Q3 2014, which made Weibo rank top among social apps in the world according to data of Global Web Index.
As of October 2014, the number of users who paid on Weibo was nearly 8 million. Besides, in Q3 2014, the companies’ transaction value via Weibo payment had more than tripled from Q2 2014.
Also read: China B2C E-commerce Performance on Weibo in Sep 2014
