Chinanews client, Beijing, July 31st (Zuo Yukun) Meituan and Alipay are on the bar!
On the morning of the 30th, the topic of "Meituan's cancellation of Alipay payment" attracted strong attention. Meituan, which has always been eager to "de-Alipay", took the lead in launching a surprise attack. Is the takeaway platform market of "happiness two choice one" going to change?
Data map: Meituan and Ele.me's food delivery staff. Photo by Zhang Lang
Meituan "takes off" Alipay
Since the 29th, some netizens have reported that when using Meituan Pay, they found that Meituan monthly payment and bank card payment occupy the priority position, and Alipay payment is no longer displayed, while WeChat Pay and Apple pay are still on the payment selection list.
There is no Alipay option on the payment page of some netizens.
Some netizens also said that their Meituan Pay normally displays the Alipay payment method, but it is folded or ranked in the last position.
In this regard, at 23:00 on the 29th, Meituan CEO Wang Xing said on Fanfou: “Why does Taobao still not support WeChat Pay? WeChat Pay has more active users than Alipay, and the handling fee is lower than Alipay.”
Screenshot of Meituan Wangxing's "Fanfu".
Weibo @美团月付 also sent a message to support the boss: "hi By the way, when can Taobao be paid with WeChat and Meituan monthly payment?" and @hungry.
Screenshot of Weibo.
Obviously talking about Taobao, why does Meituan Yuepay want to mention hungry? In fact, yesterday afternoon, Meituan Yuefu had already made a response to this incident.
On the afternoon of the 29th, Weibo @美团月付 posted: "In fact, the main body of this article is also appropriate to replace the Ele.me app and WeChat payment", and posted a screenshot of Ele.me’s payment page, showing only Two payment methods, Huabei and Alipay, are implicitly implicated. However, the response cannot be found on the Weibo of Meituan Yuepay.
This remark naturally drew a reply when he was hungry. Weibo @UNGe.me posted: "Excuse me???" and the previous screenshot of the order placed on Ele.me showed that there is a WeChat payment option. Another small egg in this response is, Are you hungry? The order was a "chicken and duck meal for two".
Screenshot of Weibo.
Can it still be used?
Chinanews.com placed an order on the Meituan app on the evening of the 29th and the morning of the 30th, and found that the Alipay payment channel still exists, but it is ranked after the Meituan monthly payment, bank card payment, and WeChat payment options, and it is folded by the system. Click "Expand more payment methods" to see, and this "more payment methods" is actually only an option for Alipay.
The folded Alipay payment option.
In random interviews, there are situations where Alipay can and cannot be used. In the case of the same Meituan app version and mobile phone brand model of the interviewees, different users presented different payment interfaces, and there were no rules to follow. As of press time, Meituan has not yet responded to Chinanews.
But at the same time, under Ele.me’s response to Weibo, many netizens also "fight against fakes online" and posted their own Ele.me payment interface. There is no WeChat payment option on it. Some netizens said that they can contact the customer service to activate, and some netizens said that after inquiring about the customer service, the customer service asked to use the mini program, or responded "Unable to activate".
Screenshots of netizens' messages.
Chinanews.com tried to place an order on the Ele.me app and found that Ele.me would default to Alipay payment without opening a small amount of password-free payment, but if you give up the payment at this time and go back to the previous link, click on "Payment method" "There is an option for WeChat payment.
The "WeChat Pay" option on the Ele.me payment page.
Meituan or are you hungry, who do you pick?
In our foreign sales platform, the "duopoly" Meituan and Ele.me are undoubtedly their old friends. In random interviews conducted by Chinanews.com, the number of people who tend to Meituan and Ele.me is about the same.
Among the interviewees who prefer Meituan, those in non-first- and second-tier cities said that the takeaway service in their area is not particularly developed, and Meituan has wider coverage and more varieties than Ele.me. ; Some people said that their parents would use Meituan for ordering food because they don’t use Alipay, but "WeChat Pay is very easy to play."
Among the respondents who prefer Ele.me, some said that Ele.me’s price is relatively lower based on their previous comparisons. Some people are accustomed to spending in advance and need to pay through Ele.me.
There are also people who use the two apps at the same frequency, because some stores have different prices on different apps, and they will compare which one is cheaper when they are not particularly anxious.
According to data from Trustdata, a mobile Internet big data detection platform, in the first quarter of 2020, the food delivery industry structure remained stable. Meituan’s food delivery transaction volume accounted for 67.3%, and Ele.me + Ele.me star selection accounted for 30.9%.
Ele.me and Meituan’s current membership policy.
In the eyes of many people, the success of Meituan is because compared with Ele.me, it has more platform services. Whether it is traveling, booking hotels, or booking tickets, they all meet people's daily needs. The one-stop platform gathers local high-sticky users, has obvious advantages in customer acquisition and significant scale effect.
Especially this year, the epidemic has given rise to the accelerated development of the local life service industry. The Meituan, which is pursuing the victory, announced the adjustment of its organizational structure on July 7th, the establishment of the "Optimal Division", and the launch of the "Meituan Optimal" business, officially entering the community group buying track.
But I'm hungry, I don't want to catch it with my hands.
On July 10, Ele.me announced a comprehensive upgrade from a food delivery platform to a life service platform that "solves all immediate needs around users". The upgrade of "delivering food" to "delivering everything" undoubtedly directly refers to the main battlefield of Meituan-local life services.
Ali began a full-scale attack, and the war could be described as looming. Meituan, which has always been ambitious, didn't want to lose, so the knife first hit its pain point-the payment port.
Who will replace Alipay?
Compared with the shock caused by Meituan’s cancellation of Alipay payment, more people’s first reaction to this matter is: Can Meituan pay with Alipay before?
For a long time, "Hungry? + Alipay" and "Meituan + WeChat Pay" have been "official allocations" in the minds of consumers. With Ele.me and Alipay firmly bound, Meituan, which is in Tencent but has no direct "blood relationship" with it, is in a slightly embarrassing situation in terms of payment.
According to statistics from Analysys, at the end of the first quarter of this year, Alipay accounted for 48.44% of the market share in China's third-party payment platform, ranking first. Secondly, Tencent (WeChat Pay), UnionPay, and Kuaiqian Pay accounted for 33.59%, 7.19%, and 6.1% in turn.
But recently, Meituan’s share price has repeatedly hit record highs, and its market value has exceeded the $100 billion mark. It has become China’s third largest Internet company after Tencent and Ali. Meituan, which is unwilling to "people have to bow their heads under the eaves", may be like JD.com discontinuing Alipay, and plans to build an eaves of its own.
This "eave" is the Meituan monthly payment that Meituan vigorously promotes.
Data map.
Rather than fighting Alipay, Meituan Monthly Payment is actually a credit consumption tool similar to Alipay Huabei. After opening this service, when spending on Meituan apps such as Meituan takeaways, grocery shopping, Mobike, etc., you can "account on credit" first and repay uniformly next month. According to user qualifications, the "monthly payment" quota is divided into levels ranging from 300 yuan to 12,000 yuan.
According to the information provided by the relevant person in charge of Meituan Monthly Payment, during the trial operation period, the monthly order volume of Meituan users increased by over 20%, and the transaction amount increased by over 15%.
At present, Meituan Monthly Payment is still in its infancy, and it quietly rolls out Alipay payment options within a certain range of users, which may also be the beginning of its own payment business.
1.48% of the shares cannot support "love"
This is not the first time Meituan has cancelled Alipay payments. In 2016 and 2018, two users reported that Meituan was temporarily unable to use Alipay for ordering meals. Unlike WeChat Pay, which is always in a friendly position, the Alipay payment port has always been at the bottom of the page or folded.
Between Meituan and Ali, who went from temptation to breakup, there was actually a period of "acquaintance".
According to media reports, in the early stages of Meituan's development, most of the financing it received in 2011 was related to Alibaba. In particular, Ali’s Series B investment in Meituan in 2011 allowed Meituan to survive the "Thousand Regiments War" and passed the most difficult moment.
The turning point was the merger of Meituan and Dianping in 2015. At that time, Meituan Dianping, which was in the gap between the "Ali department" and the "Tencent department", hoped to get the investment of both parties at the same time, but Ali chose to refuse and withdraw from Meituan.
With Tencent's large additional investment of 1 billion US dollars, Meituan began to cooperate with Tencent. Ali backhanded the acquisition of Ele.me for US$9.5 billion, strongly supported it, and launched a “word-of-mouth” sparring, striving to gain market share.
Are you hungry? Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Ranyang
According to reports, Ali still holds a 1.48% stake in Meituan. "But in the face of the massive'money game', at best, I can only say'love'." Some Internet observers think so.
The breakup of Meituan and Ali may mean that the new payment war is starting again, but you and me as consumers need to get used to it when ordering takeout. (Finish)