Internet vendors such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu have successively launched their own payment services, which not only quietly reconstructed the payment ecology of online and offline transactions, but also created a red envelope grabbing activity in the Spring Festival Evening that consumers loved, which made UnionPay and banks change their attitudes towards online finance.
How to achieve profitability, even efficient profitability, has puzzled almost all Internet vendors around the world, and mastering payment has brought many possibilities. After all, this is the closest business to money. In fact, the rise of Taobao and even Alibaba's consumer business is inseparable from the transaction guarantee provided by Alipay. The establishment of WeChat business ecology also has the contribution of WeChat payment.
Today, just one-fifth of the 2 1 century has passed, a new generation of internet giants have begun to try to respond with payment. ByteDance's popular application Tik Tok(Alibaba) reported that it has officially launched the online payment service Tik Tok Payment. The payment of Tik Tok and the byte-based financial services behind it may be closely related to the whole of ByteDance, and even how far it can go in the future.
Tik Tok payment has just started.
Tik Tok payment, which was officially launched a few days ago, is the biggest use scenario in the gift and e-commerce links of Tik Tok live broadcast. However, at present, when buying live gifts, it will not be clearly pointed out that it is "Tik Tok payment", and the payment interface will only prompt the user. In addition to Alipay and WeChat, there is also a channel that directly binds bank card payment.
In the live broadcast with goods, the "Tik Tok Payment" discount clearly appears in the payment dialog box that jumps after the order is created, and users can pay with the bank card bound by Tik Tok. Apart from icons and copywriting, it's not much different from buying gifts. Surprisingly, Tik Tok payment was not selected when an order was created, and only Alipay and WeChat were left as payment channels when users viewed it through the order page.
Tik Tok's payment-related management functions are still simple, and only "wallet" is hidden under Tik Tok's personal page as the main entrance. The wallet is related to the token "shaking coins" presented by Tik Tok on the spot. The first thing users see is the balance of shaking coins and the entrance of recharging, but the functions related to cash transactions have not been directly displayed. Compared with the common e-wallet App, it is more like a recharge management query interface serving Tik Tok live broadcast.
Although the user can bind the bank card to the wallet, there is no transfer transaction like Alipay and WeChat, and there is basically no payment function except live gift giving and live delivery. The sub-interface includes recharge and cash withdrawal related to change management, and the figure of He Zhong Yibao, a payment license company acquired by ByteDance before, appears, but it seems to be only designed for users to extract live broadcast, creation and red envelope income.
The imperfection of payment function does not mean that Tik Tok has not introduced financial content. At the bottom of the wallet, there is a loan from "Today's Headline's Loan Technology Service Platform" and a banner showing the "Bean Staging" business. The latter only serves e-commerce for the time being and cannot borrow cash directly. In addition, there is a credit card application entrance where you can apply for a credit card jointly signed by China Everbright Bank, Huaxia Bank and Tik Tok.
At present, Tik Tok's payment is still in the stage of focusing on Tik Tok's existing strong related payment scenarios, such as the recharge link of live gift purchase and the payment link of e-commerce live goods. The complete financial function that many people expect and matches the scale of ByteDance has not appeared in Tik Tok payment.
It is unrealistic to expect it to compete with Alipay and WeChat payment. After all, the huge market share of the latter two is closely related to the functions and financial products they provide, which Tik Tok does not have yet. Tik Tok is still far away from becoming the leader of Internet financial services, but is it really impossible?
The dream of super App is inseparable from payment.
Internet products in China always show a tendency: after success in the initial field, they will expand rapidly and enter other unrelated fields, eventually forming a super App. ByteDance is not immune from the influence of customs. As today's headlines are the only one, he hopes to build his own super App with differentiated functions such as video, Q&A, Weibo and search.
These functions have not only become the basis of products in sub-sectors such as watermelon video, but also provide nutrients for today's headlines to grow into super apps. Today's headlines are gradually full of content, and at the same time, they begin to introduce commercial means such as advertising and e-commerce. Today's headlines have briefly exposed the financial function, perhaps because the license is not in place, and it is only used for headline revenue sharing for a period of time.
Tik Tok, which came from behind, has inherited the rapid growth of today's headlines and naturally inherited the dream of ByteDance Super App. At the beginning of 20 19, Tik Tok released a multi-flash App derived from social functions, trying to share a piece of social experience based on short videos. Nowadays, with the rapid growth of Tik Tok live broadcast and e-commerce business, it is natural to bring corresponding financial payment services.
The 202 1 Spring Festival Gala, which "unexpectedly" became a partner of Tik Tok, is an excellent scene for Tik Tok to pay for the cold start. It is far from enough to rely solely on the existing payment demand within Tik Tok. Through the national publicity platform of Red Packet Interactive in the Spring Festival Evening, almost all Internet vendors that have cooperated have achieved the goal of developing new users and promoting new functions. Wechat payment rose in the Spring Festival Evening of 20 15.
Most of the traffic of Tik Tok station comes from the consumption of short videos and live content, but even if Tik Tok and mobile phone manufacturers make efforts, there is still a threshold for making videos, which is not only limited by technology, but also by psychology. The payment function extended from the red envelope is an experience that everyone can accept quickly. From this point of view, it is logical to promote users to register in Tik Tok and pay with Tik Tok.
ByteDance has every reason to make a fortune in Tik Tok through the Spring Festival Evening, but there is not much trend at present. Even though the online payment of Tik Tok is not complete, with the fighting power demonstrated by the internet giants in the past, people all over the country may see the full version of Tik Tok wallet on New Year's Eve in three weeks.
Without the Spring Festival Evening, while the Tik Tok store is growing, Tik Tok will also expand payment and finance closely related to e-commerce business. In the current version of Tik Tok, there is an exclusive entrance to Tik Tok store under the personal interface, and you can view the goods purchased by users through live broadcast and short video. Tik Tok's attitude in promoting e-commerce is beyond doubt.
Payment is beautiful, but it is not simple.
Before Tik Tok users and more China netizens use Tik Tok as a daily financial product, there is one more question to be answered. In other words, why should Tik Tok or ByteDance pay? Today, Alipay and WeChat payment are both third-party payment services with huge user base and stable operation. Using them to complete payment, users have a low learning threshold and can control R&D operating costs.
This principle applies to Internet companies with e-commerce and other payment needs, but it is not enough for ByteDance. Third-party payment channels need to provide additional fees, which will become more and more impressive with the growth of volume, and Tik Tok happens to have a fast-running live broadcast/e-commerce business, and the payment fee will become a considerable figure.
Self-built payment channels mean that you can grasp more income, and you can directly use UnionPay system to trade without intermediate links, which can also reduce the handling fee. ByteDance has also made good preparations in the past few years. First, the licenses of a number of Internet financial products, such as online payment, micro-loans, insurance, securities investment, consulting, etc., are collected, so that a complete business chain can be carried out with confidence.
Alipay and WeChat Pay have fully tasted the sweetness. The former has established credibility for Alibaba's consumer business, and both consumers and businesses can conduct transactions under the premise of third-party guarantee. The design without online banking certification further reduced the learning cost of online shopping and completed the initial market education. The latter is to sink online payment to a more popular market and indirectly feed back the business entities inside and outside WeChat.
After mastering the payment channel, internet giants can use it to develop a large number of financial services, such as loans, funds, insurance, etc., which have turned into huge profits under the huge economic demand. In the prospectus submitted by Ant Financial, financial services only account for two-thirds. In the third quarter financial report of Tencent in 2020, financial services accounted for 27% of total revenue.
Financial products bring huge profits, which is very important for ByteDance, which needs room for growth to enrich its entrepreneurial story. It is natural to carry out such business. Coincidentally, Aauto Quicker, which competed with Tik Tok on the short video track, had previously obtained the license required for payment through the acquisition of Yilian Payment, and applied for the registration of the "Laotie Payment" trademark.
Payment and financial services look beautiful, but they also need to face supervision and conduct business under the premise of complying with relevant units and market order. Financial institutions, large enterprises, economies, self-employed individuals and individual consumers should reasonably exist for mutual benefit and win-win, rather than endless acquisitions. A healthy economy can last for a long time.
summary
For Tik Tok, it is very rare to open the opportunity of 202 1 year. The live broadcast and e-commerce business are in full swing, and becoming an interactive partner of the Spring Festival Evening Red Packet can attract users. It is natural for Tik Tok to start paying for everything, except the moment of ignition. Assuming that payment and financial services are successful, it is also worth imagining how ByteDance will handle the relationship between Internet giants in the future.
Tik Tok pays, it's just on the way.