City aims to be e-commerce nexus
- Source: Global Times
- [10:37 July 05 2010]
- Comments
A customer makes an e-payment with her cell phone at a supermarket. Photo: CFP
By Tang Zhao
A State-owned organization inked a deal with Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce (SMCC) on Friday to promote the city's e-commerce industry.
China International Electronic Commerce Centre, an organization under the Ministry of Commerce, signed a memorandum with SMCC in a bid to make Shanghai an exemplar for e-commerce nationwide, Xinhua reported on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Xu Lin, Party chief of Pudong New Area, said on June 28 during a visit to nationwide third-party payment service provider 99Bill that Pudong will concentrate on the development of e-payment services, supply chains and finance information platforms, Youth Daily reported Saturday.
Xu said development zones in Pudong, such as Zhangjiang and Jinqiao, will establish special areas to build a high-level e-commerce hub, attracting a large number of enterprises in the emerging industry, including e-payment companies.
According to a report released in June by market research firm Analysys Interna-tional, the transaction volume of third-party payments in China in the first quarter this year reached 208.16 billion yuan ($30.74 billion), nearly 200 billion yuan ($29.54 billion) of which was paid online, 13 percent up on the previous quarter.
The report found that Shanghai-headquartered e-payment service providers such as Chinapay, 99Bill and International Payment Solutions (IPS) are among the nation's top 10.
Currently, Shanghai is the largest market for third-party payment services in China, with the city accounting for 15 percent of the country's total third-party payments, Wang Wei, chairman of the Shanghai E-Commerce Association, said at the launch of the association's E-payment Service Commission in early June.
Wang added that, as online payments play such a crucial role in e-commerce, safer and more convenient online payment services should be built.
The development of e-payment services is one of the priorities in building Shanghai as an international financial center, and the city must take the lead in the industry by cultivating more dominant firms, Liu Jian, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, said at the same event.
Cao Junbo, chief analyst at iResearch, told the Global Times Sunday that support from local government is definitely good news for third-party payment companies.
"Some Shanghai-based providers have already taken the lead in the industry. However, those enterprises still need to prepare themselves to meet the national requirements set by the central bank," Cao said. "Companies should focus on innovation, improving their services and fulfilling users' needs."
The new rules stipulated by the People's Bank of China, effective from September 1, state that third-party payment agencies must get a license from the central bank to operate. Providers who want to conduct business nationwide must have at least 100 million yuan ($14.76 million) of registered capital.
