Recently, the People’s Bank of China approved the application for the change of Guofubao’s equity, and PayPal acquired 70% of Guofubao through its subsidiary, Bank of America Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. With this move, it became Guofubao’s actual controller and enter the Chinese payment service market.
The People’s Bank of China has approved PayPal Information Technologies Co., Ltd.’s acquisition of a 70% equity interest in Guofubao Information Technology Co. (GoPay), Ltd., a holder of a payment business license in China. We are the first foreign payment platform that will provide online payment services in China. We look forward to partnering with China’s financial institutions and technology platforms, providing a more comprehensive set of payment solutions to businesses and consumers, both in China and globally. The transaction should close in the fourth quarter of 2019 and is subject to customary closing conditions.
The entry of the first foreign-funded payment system caused a real stir. Many are currently discussing whether it can cause a mess in China’s mobile payment sphere. According to the “2019Q1 China Third-Party Payment Quarterly Data Release” issued by iResearch, Alipay and WeChat Pay are the giants in the mobile payment market. They account for the majority of the market share, respectively 53.8% and 39.9%. The remaining mobile payment brands such as Jingdong Payment account for less than 10% of the market.
How Many Companies Are There in China’s Mobile Payment System?
Another statistical data shows that in 2017 there have been more than 700 new enterprises. At present, the total number of mobile payment companies in the country exceeds 2,000.
It is worth mentioning that about 150 new mobile payment companies registered in 2017 have been canceled or revoked, and the survival period has not exceeded 3 years. 2017 is the blowout year for mobile payment companies, but the number of companies that have been added to this year has been canceled and revoked the most.