PayPal was born in 1998. It is a Nasdaq-listed company and the world's leading third-party payment company. Its business covers more than 200 countries and regions around the world, and it has more than 286 million active payment accounts, supporting transactions in more than 100 currencies around the world. The acquired party, Guofubao, has many "passes" such as third-party payment license, fund payment license and cross-border RMB payment business license. The success of this transaction means that PayPal has become the first foreign-funded institution to enter the payment service market in China. From the perspective of China's financial openness, this acquisition should be a milestone in the history of non-bank payment in China.
Can the geese come back?
It is reported that this is not the first time PayPal has entered the China market. PayPal has been in China since 2005. Five years later, due to the regulatory norms of the third-party payment market, PayPal had to regret that it failed to obtain identity authentication. After that, we started with international bill collection, and started cross-border payment business in China to serve B-side businesses, but it never opened up a big situation in the China market.
PayPal's re-entry into the mainland this time is also a helpless move. At the beginning of 20 18, Yi Bei, its original partner, suddenly announced that it would stop using PayPal as its back-end payment service in 2020, and chose Adyen, an Amsterdam payment company established in 2006, as its follow-up partner. The kicked-out PayPal also needs to find a new broad sky, which is one of the important reasons that forced PayPal to explore the China market. The downsizing of HNA just gives it a chance.
However, after 9 years' withdrawal, the PayPal curve has entered China and returned again, which has been an earth-shaking change. Nine years ago, Alipay was called China PayPal. Nine years later, PayPal was called the American version of Alipay. Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi, when PayPal came with the momentum of competing for the blue ocean, it was a new day for PayPal to enter China. The blue ocean is gone, and the oligarchs are standing tall. It needs to be questioned whether we can recreate foreign miracles and break the hegemony of Alipay and WeChat.
At present, compared with Alipay and WeChat, the only obvious advantage of PayPal is cross-border payment. Under the general trend of online retailing entering the winter and online retailing increasing, the scale of e-commerce transactions in China has increased year by year, which has promoted the development of cross-border electronic commerce. Foresight Industry Research Institute predicts that by 2020, the scale of cross-border e-commerce transactions in China will increase to 12.7 trillion yuan, and the number of outbound tourists will reach 654.38+56 million. In the face of this huge market, Alipay and WeChat also laid out early. Alipay covers 54 countries and regions, and WeChat accesses 49 countries and regions.
However, in terms of business volume layout, PayPal, which was born in the last century, has seized the opportunity and maintained its advantage in market penetration. Alipay and WeChat will never be as good as PayPal. In addition, as far as the China market is concerned, before PayPal entered China, the China market already accounted for one-fifth of its cross-border payment business. All these indicate that PayPal has a bright future in China and cross-border electronic commerce.
PayPal or join hands with Qisheng Payment to blow a new wind.
Although neither PayPal nor Guofubao disclosed when the future business will go online, you can still see the content of PayPal CEO Dan Shulman's public response on LinkedIn. It indicates that "related transactions will be completed in the fourth quarter", which means that PayPal will officially enter the domestic market in the fourth quarter of 20 19.
As for the business direction, it is only vaguely mentioned that "we look forward to cooperating with financial institutions and technology platforms in China to provide more comprehensive payment solutions for enterprises and consumers in China and even around the world." However, many analysts pointed out that PayPal is likely to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, focus on cross-border payment, and will not confront Alipay and WeChat on the short board.
The latest data shows that in 20 18, the total amount of cross-border e-commerce transactions in China reached 7.6 trillion RMB, an increase of 20.6% compared with 20 17, far exceeding the growth rate of traditional international trade. China market contributed one-fifth of PayPal's cross-border payment business, accounting for 265,438+0% of its total business. In addition, PayPal's previous internationalization strategy has accumulated rich experience in cross-border payment, and it has a complete license in the United States, which can even drive more domestic e-commerce platforms to reach more foreign users, which Alipay and WeChat lack. In the context of expanding opening up in the future, PayPal may be able to win a surprise victory by virtue of the advantages of cross-border payment business, and its competition with Alipay and WeChat is unknown.
PayPal's re-entry into the Mainland this time is not only of special significance to PayPal itself, but also a good thing for China. It is of multiple positive significance to the development of the third-party payment market, the expansion of finance and the enjoyment of financial services by consumers in China.
Through this transaction with PayPal, it will help to achieve unified access standards and regulatory requirements for domestic and foreign payment institutions, and further optimize the payment industry structure. Moreover, the moderate introduction of foreign payment institutions is conducive to triggering the "catfish effect" and improving the service level of payment institutions and payment industries. In addition, the regulatory authorities' approval of PayPal's acquisition of the equity of Guofubao Holdings can also promote the two-way opening of the payment and clearing market, help deepen the reform of China's payment service market, improve the system construction, and expand and deepen the opening up of the financial industry.
In the short term, PayPal's entry into China may only be a supporting role in the third-party payment market in China, and it cannot shake the status of Alipay and WeChat. But in the long run, PayPal will bring a new trend to the domestic market. And this new wind will make PayPal go smoothly and skyrocket in the later period. Although the current domestic layout is unclear, PayPal is expected in the future.