Tencent QQ’s monthly active users exceeded 829 million and MAUs on smart device exceeded 521 million according to Tencent’s finance report of first half of 2014. Tencent QQ was the first Chinese instant messenger in Guinness World Record for having the most number of simultaneous online users on an instant messaging platform on 3rd July, 2014. Tencent’s large number of users provide a solid base for QQ Wallet’s development.
QQ Wallet was launched by Tencent in the first quarter of 2014 as an extended feature to mobile QQ apps：
Users can use QQ Wallet to top up mobile phone accounts, purchase movie tickets, QQ membership, and pay for mobile games etc.
Related report: China Mobile Payment User Behavior in 2013
“QQ Wallet will target its users mainly in tier-3 and tier-4 cities in China. It is also a supplement for WeChat payment which can stimulate much need for mobile payment”, said Zhen Haojian, who is in charge of QQ Wallet’s development in Tencent.
Zhen also mentioned that, QQ wallet is a big move on Tencent’s finance. QQ Wallet payment is based on QQ account while WeChat payment is based on WeChat account; and both connect with Tenpay’s fast payment system.
At the present, the number of QQ Wallet users binding bank cards is 90 million. Compared with Alipay and WeChat payment, it is believed that QQ wallet should be featured with unique functions which are distinct and focusing on payment security.
QQ Wallet has many advantages. For example, users can buy QQ coins, QQ members or other services without being redirected to other webpages or other online payment platforms; users can finish payment on Jingdong (Tencent is Jingdong’s significant shareholder and strategic partner since 10 March 2014) Meilishuo, who cooperates with Tencent QQ; users can enjoy convenience with QQ Wallet in O2O market.
Nowadays, the competition in China online payment market is fierce. Take Tencent V.S. Alipay as an example. In terms of taxi app, mobile QQ and Wechat wallet cooperated with Didi Taxi while Aliapy wallet cooperated with Kuaidi Taxi; In China group buying market, mobile QQ and WeChat Wallet are connected to Dianping.com, China’s Yelp while Alipay is connected to Taobao and so on.
Tencent is good at developing online virtual products and gathered great number of users. QQ Wallet can provide more service for such users. However, offline market is still a big challenge for QQ wallet. We can see Alipay’s off-line strategy worked on Double 12 shopping Day this year.
In Q3 2014, Alipay accounted for 49.2% market share in China online payment market, followed by Tenpay with 20% market share. There was over 42.3 billion transactions on Alipay in 10 Years. However, Tencent still has its chance on mobile payment with its huge QQ and WeChat user base.
Also read: Insights of China Mobile Payment (Wechat, Alipay) Users