China' leading e-commerce firm Alibaba has recently launched the version 9.0 of its Alipay payment service, with features posing threat to the social media platform WeChat and review site Dianping.
The version, which was launched earlier in July, has new pages--"vendors" and "friends"--and additional features such as IOU and group payment options, the China Business News reported.
The "vendor" page offers coupons for a 50-percent discount on 130,000 food and beverage enterprises accepting payments via Alipay. Sources claim that this shall also be available to other businesses and services.
For Chen Weiru, associate professor at the China Europe International Business School, this move can help attract users and improve usage frequency.The report added that this newly added characteristic serves as a challenger to Dianping.
Meanwhile, the "friends" feature allows its users to send messages to fellow subscribers, posing a threat to Alibaba's rival Tencent's WeChat. According to users who have already had Alipay's latest version, the "friends" page has indeed similarities with WeChat.
Nonetheless, Alipay clarified that they do not mean to compete with others--their goal is to venture into other kinds of business.
Alipay will be further introduced in different stages as it makes a foray into other businesses and services, according to Ant Financial Services vice president Fan Zhiming.
Fan added that Alipay is eyed to be a one-stop platform for the daily needs of its customers.