Alibaba And Tencent Are Disrupting The Offline Payment Market In China

Alibaba's Alipay Wallet and Tencent's WeChat Payment, the two leading mobile payment services in China, entered the offline payment market in late 2013 and early 2014, respectively. Given their strong influence with consumers via their digital platforms and their ambitions to expand into offline scenarios, we expect both companies to disrupt the offline payments market in China. eBusiness professionals have a unique opportunity to leverage this disruption to offer digital-savvy Chinese consumers better experiences by offering mobile payments in offline scenarios as well as building a more complete database of customer purchases. In this report, Forrester analyzes the offline payment approaches of Alipay Wallet and WeChat Payment and identifies the likely value of these approaches for eBusiness professionals.