Chinese online gaming and social networking group Tencent has pulled back from a high-stakes battle with ecommerce company Alibaba for control of China’s mobile payments market, after spending billions of renminbi on subsidies¹ to attract users.

中国在线游戏和社交网络集团腾讯(Tencent)在同电子商务公司阿里巴巴(Alibaba)争夺中国移动支付市场控制权的事关重大的角力中后撤。此前腾讯为吸引用户已支出巨额补贴。

Last month the company began charging users for transferring funds between WeChat Pay — the payments service linked to Tencent’s popular instant messaging app — and traditional bank accounts. Previously², Tencent had subsidised the transfers by absorbing the associated bank transaction fees rather than passing them on to users. A WeChat wallet feature also allowed transfers between different commercial banks.

不久前，该公司开始针对在微信支付（WeChat Pay，与腾讯人气极高的即时通讯应用关联的支付服务）与传统银行账户之间转移资金向用户收费。此前腾讯通过吸收相关银行手续费（而不是将其转嫁给用户）来补贴这类转账操作。微信钱包(WeChat wallet)功能还允许在不同商业银行之间进行转账。

In January alone, Tencent spent Rmb300m ($46m) on bank transaction fees, the company revealed in its annual report. For the fourth quarter, “other” revenue expenses rose 153 per cent to Rmb1.5bn, an increase it said was “mainly driven” by bank transaction fees accrued³ by WeChat Pay.

腾讯在其年报中披露，仅在今年1月，该公司就在微信支付交易的相关银行手续费上支出3亿元人民币（合4600万美元）。对于去年第四季度，“其他”业务的收入成本同比增长153%，至15亿元人民币，该公司称，这一增加主要是由微信支付发生的银行手续费驱动的。

Pony⁴ Ma, Tencent’s chairman, said that as of March, when the company began imposing⁵ user fees, operating losses from WeChat Pay were “brought under control”.

腾讯董事长马化腾(Pony Ma)表示，3月份该公司开始向用户收费后，微信支付的运营亏损得到控制。

The shift marks a partial de-escalation of its market-share battle with Alipay, the payment service run by Alibaba’s financial affiliate⁶ Ant Financial.

这种转变标志着其与支付宝（Alipay，由阿里巴巴旗下的金融公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)运营的支付服务）之间的市场份额争夺战出现部分降级。

Competition between the companies intensified⁷ at the start of the lunar new year 2015, when both spent billions on “red envelope” cash giveaways to lure⁸ new users. An earlier duel⁹ between the internet heavyweights over car-hailing apps began with a war of subsidies for riders and drivers but ended with a merger¹⁰ of Tencent-backed Didi and Alibaba’s Kuaidi.

两家公司之间的竞争在2015年农历新年加剧，当时双方都砸下巨款发送“红包”以吸引新用户。更早的时候，这两家互联网巨擘在打车应用上展开一场争夺乘客和司机的补贴战，但最终以腾讯支持的滴滴(Didi)与阿里巴巴支持的快的(Kuaidi)合并告终。

The introduction of user fees is not purely¹¹ a cost-saving measure. Analysts¹³ say that imposing fees on withdrawals¹⁴ will make cash stored in the WeChat wallet “stickier”.

实行用户费用并不是单纯的节省成本之举。分析师们表示，对提现收费将使存在微信钱包的现金更具“粘性”。

“The fees create a barrier to funds leaving, so it incentivises users to keep their money inside the WeChat ecosystem,” says Li Zhefeng, analyst¹² at iResearch in Beijing.

“这些费用给提现制造了障碍，由此激励用户把自己的钱留在微信的生态系统内，”北京艾瑞咨询(iResearch)分析师李哲峰表示。

Tencent’s subsidies helped WeChat attract millions of users and boosted transaction volume in a year that witnessed the explosion of online-to-offline mobile payments to merchants such as supermarkets and restaurants.

腾讯的补贴帮助微信吸引了数以百万计的用户，并在一年里提振了交易量，在此期间支付给商家（如超市和餐馆）的线上至线下(O2O)移动支付出现爆炸式增长。

But in terms of market share, Tencent has little to show for the money it spent. Its payment affiliate, Caifutong, processed 20 per cent of Chinese third-party online payments last year, compared with Alipay’s 48 per cent, according to iResearch. That’s up only half a percentage point from a year earlier.

但是，就市场份额而言，腾讯的巨额支出看不到什么明显成果。艾瑞咨询的数据显示，其支付附属公司“财付通”去年处理了中国20%的第三方在线支付，同比仅上升半个百分点，远低于“支付宝”的48%。