Shulou(Shulou.com)05/31 Report--

­after Wechat began charging users' cash withdrawal fees in March, Alipay issued an announcement on Sept. 12, saying that due to the rise in comprehensive operating costs, in order to continue to provide more quality services to users, starting from October 12, 2016, Alipay will charge 0.1% service fee for individual users who exceed the free limit, and each individual user will enjoy a cumulative basic free withdrawal limit of 20, 000 yuan. After using the basic free quota, users can use the ant points to exchange for more free withdrawals.

­this has been more than half a year since Wechat charges. In fact, users use Alipay more for all kinds of consumption, financial management, payment, credit card, Mobile Phone Top-Up Service and so on. Relatively speaking, there are few opportunities to withdraw cash. The charge for withdrawing cash in excess of the free amount has little actual impact on users.

­each user has a cumulative free quota of 20,000 basic

­Yu'e Bao transfer is still free without being affected.

­withdrawal refers to the behavior of users transferring funds to bank cards through third-party payment platforms. It is not the first time in the industry that Alipay adjusts its withdrawal rules. In March this year, Wechat began to charge 0.1 per cent for users to withdraw cash. Each user is entitled to a cumulative free withdrawal limit of 1000 yuan.

­compared with Wechat, which can only withdraw change to my bank card, Alipay provides a more comprehensive service. According to reports, the withdrawal of Alipay involves two functions: "withdrawing cash to my bank card" and "transferring money to other people's bank card". According to the adjusted rules, Alipay also charges 0.1% of the withdrawal amount for parts that exceed the free amount, and 0.1 yuan for a single service fee of less than 0.1 yuan. The difference is that individual Alipay users can accumulatively enjoy a free withdrawal limit of 20,000 yuan.

­in addition to cash withdrawal, services such as using Alipay for consumption, financial management, insurance purchase, Mobile Phone Top-Up Service, water, electricity and coal payment, registration, payment of traffic fines, using mobile Alipay to transfer money to Alipay account, repayment and other services will not be affected in any way. users can also get ant points when they use them for free. After using the free quota, the accumulated ant points can be used to exchange the free withdrawal quota. According to Alipay, the current exchange ratio is that an ant integral can be exchanged for a free cash withdrawal limit of 1 yuan, which is not capped.

­in addition, for the closely watched Yu'e Bao, Alipay announced that the transfer of Yu'e Bao funds, including to my bank card and Alipay balance, will continue to be free. However, starting from October 12, 2016, the funds newly transferred by users from the balance to Yu'e Bao can only be transferred back to the balance, not directly to the bank card.

According to relevant sources, this means that before October 12, users will transfer the balance to Yu'e Bao, which can not only be used for consumption at any time, but can also be transferred to their bank cards at will after October 12. "if there is money in the balance to worry about being charged, transferring the money to Yu'e Bao now will be the best choice."

­fees are derived from "integrated operating costs rising rapidly"

­Alipay said in the announcement that the fee was due to the "rapid rise in integrated operating costs" and that the cash withdrawal rules were adjusted to reduce some of the cost pressure.

­and earlier, when Wechat announced the withdrawal fee, it also said that "it is not a pursuit of revenue, but is used to pay bank fees."

­Ma Huateng introduced the business model behind third-party payment at the two sessions of the National people's Congress in March this year. Banks' money leaves the banking system and goes into third-party payment accounts. In fact, there is a charge, and the handling fee for transfer is about 1/1000. This is a big cost for third parties. When consumers use a third party to pay for their consumption, the merchant will pay a handling fee to the third party, but if it is a transfer between individuals, "after a third-party account, they will go back as soon as they go in and out, and the stay time is less than a day." Ma Huateng exclaimed, "one in and one out, I have to bear 1/1000 of the cost. No one can stand this figure!" According to him, Wechat's cost in January was more than 300m, even taking into account the interest income earned by third-party payment platforms.

­Why do Internet services "charge" frequently?

­although Wechat and Alipay have announced charges for cash withdrawal services this year, in fact, users are no longer new to Internet payment services.

­KuGou and QQ Music both announced that they had reached 10 million paying households, and the previously released "China online Music user behavior" report also showed that nearly 60% of users had paid for music, and more than 60% of users were willing to pay for high-quality exclusive content.

In the field of online video, iqiyi led the number of paying members to break through the 20 million mark through solo dramas "Tomb robbing Notes", "Shushan War" and "Descendants of the Sun". Letv's half-yearly financial report also shows that high-quality video resources such as "Legend of Miyue", "Promotion of the Crown Princess" and "Dear translator" have led to a substantial increase in the number of members, and the paid income of members has increased by 152.07% compared with the same period last year.

­not only that, the previously popular paid knowledge sharing app Fendai announced that only one month after its launch, 10 million users participated, more than 1 million users paid for the content, and the transaction value exceeded 18 million. All these show that today's Internet platform is thinking about free and charging, as well as netizens' consumption habits are changing.

­Alipay said in the announcement that it is not an easy decision to charge for withdrawals that exceed the free limit, let alone that Alipay will make money as its sole purpose. "but all services need to be based on sustainable resources, which is contrary to objective business laws."

­experts say that from the perspective of economic principles, it is an inevitable trend for Internet platforms to charge moderate fees. Because with the development of the Internet platform, the huge transaction costs and labor costs brought by free services can not reduce the marginal costs of the platform, on the contrary, it will continue to increase the operating costs of the platform, making it difficult for the platform to continue to operate. it is a fatal blow to the continuous innovation and service ability of the platform. As for some of the charges on the Internet, consumers need not panic, because as long as the Internet industry remains competitive in a fair and open market economy, the price will certainly tend to be reasonable.

With the increasing willingness of users to pay for high-quality content and services on the Internet, some Internet companies are no longer using "free" as the only means to attract users, but to improve the quality of service and expand the scope of services to attract "paying" users. This is also a sign of the maturity of the Internet in China.

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