Could Alipay and Tenpay kill China’s Unionpay?

An example of the Alipay offline payment system with QR codes.

The online-to-offline payment sector is heating up with, Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s Tenpay, now available for use as payment at Nationwide Carrefour and Walmart stores in China.

With a combined 80 percent of the total market share for online payments at last years count, this is an exciting proposition for China’s offline retail sector, potentially bringing in more customers into stores and onto online payment platforms.

But what does this mean for China’s existing plastic card operator Unionpay? Will this be the beginnings of a behind the scenes scuffle between two of China’s technology heavyweights and the Chinese Government?

As it stood in 2014, Unionpay usage roughly accounted for 50 percent of transactions in the RMB 26 trillion (USD$4.18 trillion) offline retail sector, quite a leap on the RMB 6 trillion (USD$.97 trillion) we see flowing through the online space.

Will the internet incumbents be able to wager their massive data analytics and vast cross promotional advantages to convince users to dispense with their debit cards?

I’m not entirely convinced myself. As always, curious to hear your thoughts, let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Hat tip to China Daily for the scoop.