As the concept of “going cashless” heats up in Chinese society, the country’s two leading mobile payment giants, WeChat Pay and Alipay, have pushed out marketing campaigns to further promote their respective payment apps to be the top destination for Chinese consumers looking to settle their cashless deals.
随着中国“无现金化”概念的升温,中国移动支付领域的两大巨头微信支付和支付宝推出了市场营销活动来进一步推广它们各自的支付应用软件,以期成为中国消费者进行无现金交易的首选软件。
On July 31, Alipay (under Alibaba Group) announced that it was naming the week beginning August 1 “Cashless Week”; on the same day, WeChat Pay (under Tencent Holdings) picked one day—August 8—and declared it “Cashless Day,” and also nicknamed the entire month “Cashless Month.”
7月31日,阿里巴巴旗下的支付宝宣布把八月第一周定为“无现金周”;同一天腾讯旗下的微信支付把8月8日定为“无现金日”,并把整个八月称为“无现金月”。
During the campaign period, both apps provide consumers with a massive amount of “real money” incentives (offered by Alibaba, Tencent and merchants who work with them) in order to reward them for going cashless shopping and, most importantly, for settling deals with their apps.
在该活动期间,两款支付软件都为消费者提供了大量“实价货币”奖励金(这些奖励金是由阿里巴巴、腾讯以及它们的合作商家提供的)以鼓励他们进行无现金购物,最重要的是用它们的应用软件进行交易。
Alipay users who spend at least two yuan per deal between August 1-3 have the chance to be rewarded with 0.88 – 4,888 yuan (roughly $0.13 – $728). These rewards are accumulative and can be used in the future. In addition, if people use the app to pay more than once each day during the campaign period, they can enter the lottery to receive a random portion of 18,888 grams of gold.
在8月1日~8月3日期间每笔交易至少支付两元的支付宝用户有机会获得0.88~4888元奖励金(大约0.13美元~728美元)。这些奖励金可以累积,并用于以后的交易。此外,活动期间如果有人每天使用应用软件进行一次以上的交易,他们还可以从18888克黄金奖池中抽奖,随机获得一份黄金奖励。
Alipay associates the concept of “going cashless” with sustainability, touting the spending behavior to be supportive of the low carbon movement. To further promote the event, it invites many key opinion leaders (KOLs), including the popular teenage boyband TFboys, and frequently engages with Weibo users.
支付宝将“无现金化”概念与可持续性联系在一起,标榜这种消费行为是对低碳运动的支持。为了进一步推广该活动,支付宝还邀请了流行少年男团TFboys等众多关键的意见领袖做代言人,并时常与微博用户互动。
WeChat Pay, on the other hand, relies heavily on its social network to promote the cashless trend on WeChat. This time, it allows users to share the incentives they gather to friends in the form of red envelopes, coupons and more. Furthermore, merchants working with Tencent can also distribute coupons and rewards through the mini app programs. All money that is collected by users is also accumulative.
微信则主要依靠其社交网络(微信朋友圈)来推广其无现金交易方式。这次活动,微信用户可以通过红包、优惠券以及其他方式向朋友分享奖励金,而且与腾讯合作的商家也可以通过小程序发放优惠券和奖励金。用户收到的所有的钱都是可以累积的。
Currently, more than 80 percent of Chinese consumers use Alipay as the primary mobile payment app in China, according to a recent survey. WeChat Pay’s adoption rate is only 25 percent, followed by UnionPay at 20 percent. It remains to be seen if WeChat Pay can catch up with its social media strength.
最近的一份调查显示,目前中国有80%的消费者把支付宝作为主要的移动支付工具。使用微信支付的比例仅为25%,其次是占20%的银联支付。微信支付是否能跟上其社交媒体发展的势头还有待观察。