Tag: alibaba

Alibaba and Tencent clash in the mobile payments market

| February 27, 2014

China’s mobile commerce market becomes a battelfield for two large companies

Two of China’s largest companies have entered into a proverbial war over the mobile payments market. Both Alibaba and Tencent have high hopes for the mobile space and have been aggressively establishing a strong presence in the mobile commerce sector. Alibaba has managed to capture a strong lead with its Alipay platform, but Tencent still has a strong connection to Chinese consumers through its WeChat application. Now, the two companies are beginning to fight in the cab-calling services arena.

Cab-calling services receive more attention from Alibaba and Tencentmobile payments

Cab-calling services are becoming somewhat common in China. These services are very straightforward in than consumers can call for a taxi and arrange for transportation. Some services allow users to pay for their taxi directly from a mobile device. This is meant to make it more convenient for consumers that have become more reliant on their smartphones and tablets to pay their cab fare. Alibaba and Tencent have entered into a price war with their respective Kuaidi and Didi applications.

Applications set to compete more aggressively

The two applications offer similar cab-calling services. As such, they have begun intensely competing with one another for consumers that will likely use one over the other for the foreseeable future. Tencent has announced that those using the Didi and WeChat applications will receive a price subsidy on their travels. Alibaba has also announced a similar initiative, claiming that those using the Kuaidi application and paying for their trip with the Alipay platform could receive significant discounts.

Mobile commerce competition continues in China

Competition in the mobile commerce sector is unavoidable for large companies that intend to establish a strong following in the mobile space. Chinese consumers have become enthralled with the concept of mobile payments and new services are becoming available to them at a rapid pace. These services intend to capture their attention and support for years, but few have managed to actually do so. Tencent and Alibaba have managed to attract support from most consumers in the country concerning their mobile initiatives.

Alibaba to break into mobile games

| January 13, 2014

Alibaba sees promise in the mobile space

Alibaba, China’s largest retail organization akin to eBay and Amazon, has announced that it plans to break into the world of mobile games. China has become one of the most promising markets for mobile gaming, partly due to the rapid growth of smartphone and tablet ownership. Alibaba has been seeing a major rise in the potential of the mobile space and is not keen to be left behind by its competitors.

Tencent and Alibaba may clash on mobile games

Alibaba is currently working to develop its own mobile gaming platform. This move likely comes as a response to Tencent’s efforts to make its gratuitously popular WeChat application into a gaming platform. Tencent currently boasts of the strongest presence in China’s mobile sector. The WeChat application has more than 570 million downloads and Tencent itself is behind many of the country’s most popular mobile games. Alibaba is keen to break into the mobile space more aggressively and break the monopoly that Tencent is building.

Developers may find Alibaba’s platform attractive

Mobile Games - AlibabaThe organization is providing access to its mobile gaming platform to developers for free this year. This initiative aims to attract game developers to the platform and provide them with the resources they need to develop engaging mobile games that will be associated with Alibaba in the future. The revenue that these games produce will be split, with 70% of the revenue going to developers and 20% going to Alibaba. Approximately 10% of the revenue generated by these mobile games will be donated to rural education initiatives.

Games to be marketed and distributed through Taobao

Alibaba has also committed itself to fully supporting the mobile games that are developed for its platform. The organization will market and distribute these games through its Taobao e-commerce division, which boasts of 700 million users. This will provide developers with a great deal of exposure and help them reach a larger audience that they may not have had access to in the past.