Alipay to charge for transfers to personal bank accounts from October
Alibaba’s electronic payment system will charge individuals 0.1 per cent for amounts over 20,000 yuan to offset rising costs
Alipay, the payment service provider owned by tech giant Alibaba Group, will begin charging Chinese users for money transfers made to personal bank accounts from next month.
Starting from October 12, Alipay’s individual users will need to pay a fee of 0.1 per cent on digital transfers to bank accounts where the accumulated sum exceeds 20,000 yuan (HK$23,200), the company said in a statement on Monday. The minimum fee per transfer will be set at 0.1 yuan, it said.
The new charge is being imposed to offset rising operating costs, Alipay said in the statement.
“While we are providing more and more convenient and secure services, Alipay’s operating cost has been increasing at a relatively fast pace,” it said.
Alipay, controlled by Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Financial, is the most popular payment service platform in China. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
In terms of transaction value of mobile payment, the market share of Alipay in the first quarter reached 63.4 per cent, a study by Beijing-based internet consulting company Analysys International showed.
Tenpay, internet giant Tencent’s mobile payment technology that drives WeChat Wallet, had 23 per cent of the Chinese mobile payment market in the first quarter.