Asian Mobile Payment Apps as a Way of Life: A Look at Alipay, Paytm, and WeChat Pay

“The mobile payment app environment in Asia is a completely different ecosystem from Western countries, where mobile payments industry is more fragmented, has greater competition, and contains many long-standing legacy players. Surely, Asian mobile network providers are a force to be reckoned with around the globe and can provide some lessons for U.S. and European mobile payment app providers,” commented Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit and Alternative Products Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group, and co-author of this report.

“Alipay and WeChat Pay have built all-encompassing mobile commerce platforms that do just about anything related to commerce and social interaction in China. There is nothing like either of them in the West, which has a multiplicity of overlapping mobile payment providers and financial institutions. However, Western mobile platforms can certainly emulate some of the Asian mobile integrated features and solutions that have created a user base of over 1 billion people,” said Raymond Pucci, Associate Director, Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group, and co-author of this report.

This report is 19 pages long and has 6 exhibits.