騰訊從中國移動支付大戰中後撤

Chinese online gaming and social networking group Tencent has pulled back from a high-stakes battle with ecommerce company Alibaba for control of China’s mobile payments market, after spending billions of renminbi on subsidies to attract users.

中國在線遊戲和社交網絡集團騰訊(Tencent)在同電子商務公司阿里巴巴(Alibaba)爭奪中國移動支付市場控制權的事關重大的角力中後撤。此前騰訊爲吸引用戶已支出鉅額補貼。

Last month the company began charging users for transferring funds between WeChat Pay — the payments service linked to Tencent’s popular instant messaging app — and traditional bank accounts. Previously, Tencent had subsidised the transfers by absorbing the associated bank transaction fees rather than passing them on to users. A WeChat wallet feature also allowed transfers between different commercial banks.

不久前，該公司開始針對在微信支付（WeChat Pay，與騰訊人氣極高的即時通訊應用關聯的支付服務）與傳統銀行賬戶之間轉移資金向用戶收費。此前騰訊通過吸收相關銀行手續費（而不是將其轉嫁給用戶）來補貼這類轉賬操作。微信錢包(WeChat wallet)功能還允許在不同商業銀行之間進行轉賬。

In January alone, Tencent spent Rmb300m ($46m) on bank transaction fees, the company revealed in its annual report. For the fourth quarter, “other” revenue expenses rose 153 per cent to Rmb1.5bn, an increase it said was “mainly driven” by bank transaction fees accrued by WeChat Pay.

騰訊在其年報中披露，僅在今年1月，該公司就在微信支付交易的相關銀行手續費上支出3億元人民幣（合4600萬美元）。對於去年第四季度，“其他”業務的收入成本同比增長153%，至15億元人民幣，該公司稱，這一增加主要是由微信支付發生的銀行手續費驅動的。

Pony Ma, Tencent’s chairman, said that as of March, when the company began imposing user fees, operating losses from WeChat Pay were “brought under control”.

騰訊董事長馬化騰(Pony Ma)表示，3月份該公司開始向用戶收費後，微信支付的運營虧損得到控制。

The shift marks a partial de-escalation of its market-share battle with Alipay, the payment service run by Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Financial.

這種轉變標誌着其與支付寶（Alipay，由阿里巴巴旗下的金融公司螞蟻金服(Ant Financial)運營的支付服務）之間的市場份額爭奪戰出現部分降級。

Competition between the companies intensified at the start of the lunar new year 2015, when both spent billions on “red envelope” cash giveaways to lure new users. An earlier duel between the internet heavyweights over car-hailing apps began with a war of subsidies for riders and drivers but ended with a merger of Tencent-backed Didi and Alibaba’s Kuaidi.

兩家公司之間的競爭在2015年農曆新年加劇，當時雙方都砸下鉅款發送“紅包”以吸引新用戶。更早的時候，這兩家互聯網巨擘在打車應用上展開一場爭奪乘客和司機的補貼戰，但最終以騰訊支持的滴滴(Didi)與阿里巴巴支持的快的(Kuaidi)合併告終。

The introduction of user fees is not purely a cost-saving measure. Analysts say that imposing fees on withdrawals will make cash stored in the WeChat wallet “stickier”.

實行用戶費用並不是單純的節省成本之舉。分析師們表示，對提現收費將使存在微信錢包的現金更具“粘性”。

“The fees create a barrier to funds leaving, so it incentivises users to keep their money inside the WeChat ecosystem,” says Li Zhefeng, analyst at iResearch in Beijing.

“這些費用給提現製造了障礙，由此激勵用戶把自己的錢留在微信的生態系統內，”北京艾瑞諮詢(iResearch)分析師李哲峯表示。

Tencent’s subsidies helped WeChat attract millions of users and boosted transaction volume in a year that witnessed the explosion of online-to-offline mobile payments to merchants such as supermarkets and restaurants.

騰訊的補貼幫助微信吸引了數以百萬計的用戶，並在一年裏提振了交易量，在此期間支付給商家（如超市和餐館）的線上至線下(O2O)移動支付出現爆炸式增長。

But in terms of market share, Tencent has little to show for the money it spent. Its payment affiliate, Caifutong, processed 20 per cent of Chinese third-party online payments last year, compared with Alipay’s 48 per cent, according to iResearch. That’s up only half a percentage point from a year earlier.

但是，就市場份額而言，騰訊的鉅額支出看不到什麼明顯成果。艾瑞諮詢的數據顯示，其支付附屬公司“財付通”去年處理了中國20%的第三方在線支付，同比僅上升半個百分點，遠低於“支付寶”的48%。