A new service that seeks to help companies send gift envelopes through WeChat was inaugurated by Alipay. Alipay is an electronic payment service supported by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Alipay announced that what it has launched was a proposal aimed to help companies create their own cash-filled red envelopes online.
Furthermore, the gift envelopes that will be generated through Alipay's platform can be directed to the app WeChat, China’s most well-known chat application. Claims made by WeChat prove that the application has garnered more than 450 million monthly active users.
This new service instigated by Alipay, however, appeared as an act of reprisal in response to Tencent’s app's block. Moreover, the service is perceived as a major move to compete with WeChat which runs services that were proven successful in getting new users to avail mobile payment services.
WeChat in response launched the first attack by blocking red envelopes sent from Alipay. Tencent mentioned that matters that involve security concerns were the basic considerations for hampering the requests to share Alipay’s envelopes on its policy.
WeChat's Web page simply cited "security concerns" for rejecting requests to share Alipay's red envelopes and did not give any reason for blocking their service.
Alipay seemed to have gained advantage as it managed to attract greater public attention and good feedback.
According to experts, the service has a good potential to increase user activity, thereby giving them opportunity to expand their reach into social media and payment services.