The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), a central government-owned enterprise, has launched its own payment app. It’s rumored that the app will make third-party payment methods for electricity bills obsolete, turning Alipay and WeChat Pay into direct victims of the new app.
iFeng.com, a Chinese news portal, citing people with inside knowledge on Tuesday, reported that SGCC issued a document to its provincial branches telling the branches to promote the newly-introduced payment platform “Dian e Bao”. The document also says SGCC is considering shutting down all third-party channels for citizens to pay electricity bills.
SGCC plans to gradually cancel third-party payment methods for electricity within three months, the above insider said. And according to another report by Sohu news, SGCC set its preliminary goal at getting 500,000 users within the year.
Similar to other payment apps, the app has basic functions such as “scan to pay”, bill payment for electricity, and transfer capabilities, through which users can transfer money to friends or to bank accounts.
Besides the functions outlined above, SGCC has bigger ambitions in the Internet finance sector. It wants to integrate more functions into its app in the future, from an online credit product, an e-commerce portal, and a travel booking function all the way to a credit card payment function.
Last June, SGCC officially launched its own e-commerce site, selling all kinds of electric appliances, smartphones, smart home products, electric vehicles and even charging piles.SGCC covers the electric power supply for 26 out of the 34 provinces in China.
A simple mandatory order from the enterprise, which has the government’s backing, would take a heavy toll on the domestic third-party online payment initiators Alipay and WeChat Pay. The government-owned enterprise is easily reaping the fruits of these two, after their years of effort cultivating users into the habit of paying bills online.
Launched 12 years ago, Alipay has made nearly everything possible to be paid within an app. It has reportedly accumulated around 270 million active users in total as of last April.
(Photo from News.huahuo.com)