The industry is highly consolidated, with two dominant players - Tencent and Alibaba - taking up 90% of the market share, according to domestic consultancy iiMedia. Some universities, such as Northwest University and Zhengzhou University of Aeronautics, have since rolled back the ban following the company’s response.Ĭhina has seen a fast-growing adoption of mobile payments over the past decade, and the number of people using online payments exceeded 900 million in 2021. No commission would be charged to businesses run by colleges, the company clarified.

Generally, WeChat Pay applies commission of 0.6% to the majority of merchants, as stated on its official website. Tencent further explained that this “exploitation” has resulted in rising operational costs and expenses incurred in transactions with banks and other liquidation agencies. “We observed that with the increasing number of merchants on campus, certain profit-making services such as e-commerce and hotel businesses have been taking advantage of our subsidy resources,” stated the company. With the suspension of WeChat Pay services sparking widespread debate on social media, Tencent apologized, citing a communication blunder and later said that the service fee was adjusted to 0.2% and only applied to “profit-making scenarios” on campus.Ĭommission has been exempted for the payment of tuition fees, the company said, as were other “non-profit” transactions since 2015. The university alleged WeChat Pay charged commission of as high as 0.6%, and that it decided to stop access to the service after negotiations with the company failed. Zhoukou Normal University in the central Henan province issued a similar ban on WeChat Pay Thursday, saying students could still use their school ID cards, credit cards, and other mobile payment methods. On June 26, the Nanjing University of Science and Technology in the eastern Jiangsu province was the first to cut all ties, claiming the payment service platform had started charging merchants on the campus commission of 0.2% for each transaction, with the exception of tuition-related payments. In contrast, WeChat Pay’s main competitor, Alipay, doesn’t charge universities commission for the same transactions. Over the past week, more than 10 universities across four provinces announced the suspension of WeChat Pay on campus due to the increased service fees the company began charging this month. Days after several universities across China announced the suspension of WeChat Pay services following a hike in commission for the payment service on campus, WeChat’s parent company Tencent has issued an apology and announced steps to address the mounting backlash.

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