As the allure of "touchless" payments fades, Alipay's aspiration to redirect traffic through this feature begins to wane.

To a certain extent, users opt for Alipay's "touchless" function not so much for the convenience it offers in payments, but rather for the cash subsidies associated with it.

This remains a common practice in the Internet era: exchanging capital for traffic and market share.

While this strategy may yield initial results, if Alipay relies solely on funding to attract traffic without introducing new innovations, it risks further eroding its market position.

In fact, this is not the first time Alipay has attempted such "innovations".

During the AI boom, Alipay introduced an AI assistant function, aiming to garner traffic by leveraging AI capabilities.

Factually, Alipay's embrace of AI was not to transform its internal operations and logic, nor to address the challenges of the Internet era, but rather to acquire new traffic through AI.

Ultimately, AI served as a mere means for Alipay to attract traffic.

Through these seemingly innovative efforts, Alipay's desire to escape the underlying logic of the Internet era becomes evident. Simultaneously, it underscores the profound anxiety currently plaguing the platform.

For Alipay, if it fails to attract traffic through these labels and symbolic meanings, its established market position may further erode, threatened by players like WeChat Pay, JD Pay, and Douyin Pay.

At present, Alipay might merely be a component within the Alibaba ecosystem, unable to truly break free and emerge as a payment method that spans different platforms. Alipay's grand vision may never materialize.

1

Alipay's immense growth and status as a leading mobile payment provider were fueled by Alibaba's vast ecosystem, which consistently supplied a steady stream of users.

It can be argued that it was Alibaba's expansive ecosystem that consistently provided Alipay with traffic, ultimately solidifying its position in the mobile payment market.

As Alibaba's dominance waned, particularly with JD.com and Pinduoduo carving out market shares in e-commerce, Alipay's supremacy also gradually diminished.

To combat this decline in traffic, Alipay has begun integrating numerous functions onto its platform to retain as many existing users as possible.

Today, Alipay is no longer confined to mobile payments but has become a conglomerate encompassing various aspects of people's lives.

As Alipay becomes increasingly diversified, the decline in user experience emerges as a significant weakness.

Users frequently complain about Alipay's poor user experience and disorganized functionalities.

While adding various features to maintain its user base, Alipay has also ventured into new territories to expand its traffic.

Alipay's forays into social networking, live streaming, and content creation are direct manifestations of this strategy.

While these ventures have initially increased traffic, the gains have not been sustainable, instead drawing Alipay into a larger vortex.

Whether it's experimenting with social networking or investing heavily in content, Alipay continues the Internet-era approach of seeking new traffic and expanding its platform.

While this strategy has yielded some results, due to various factors, it is difficult for Alipay to achieve sustainable growth.

2

The obsession with traffic ultimately leads Alipay to a dead end, not only failing to boost traffic but even causing further losses.

Simultaneously, Alipay's neglect of new technologies and models deprives it of the opportunity to embrace new development opportunities.

Even today, Alipay remains predominantly focused on C-end traffic, failing to tap into new growth potential by embracing the B-end market.

For instance, Alipay's embrace of AI primarily aims to consolidate C-end traffic on its platform rather than transforming itself through AI to empower B-end users.

Alipay's AI assistant epitomizes this approach.

This runs counter to the current development trajectory of AI and the mobile payment industry.

Many players now embrace AI to transform themselves and derive new supply to meet evolving user needs.

For fintech players like Alipay, the correct approach to embracing AI should involve transforming its underlying operational logic, empowering itself through AI, and thus addressing new user needs, ultimately driving traffic.

However, Alipay has not taken this path. From the outset, it focused on C-end traffic, attempting to acquire it through AI without considering how AI could transform or empower fintech.

Clearly, this approach reflects the traffic-centric mindset of the Internet era, failing to grasp the true potential of AI for Alipay.

While this strategy may temporarily benefit Alipay, once the allure of marketing gimmicks fades, it will face new challenges and lose its established market dominance.

Therefore, in embracing new technologies and models, Alipay has failed to grasp their essence, focusing only on the superficial traffic-related aspects of AI.

3

While Alipay positions itself as a fintech player, its actions belie this claim.

For any fintech player, the priority should be deeply empowering industries and making fintech a new infrastructure for emerging sectors.

If the practices of financial players are summarized, focusing on vertical deep empowerment rather than horizontal platform expansion is their defining characteristic.

However, Alipay's actions indicate that, as a fintech player, it has consistently expanded horizontally without deeply empowering the business scenarios it engages with.

From this perspective, Alipay appears more like a platform player than a fintech player.

While this platform-centric approach may offer certain growth opportunities through scale expansion, when Alipay's volume fails to match its fintech aspirations, it will encounter new challenges.

Similarly, Alipay's current problems and anxieties stem from its self-definition and development as a platform rather than as a fintech entity.

As Alipay drifts further from the essence of fintech, it is bound to encounter the same risks and issues that plagued it in the Internet era.

For any fintech player, the focus should not be on volume and scale growth but on financial security and technological fundamentals.

Ultimately, by adhering to the essence of finance and optimizing it through technological means, Alipay can truly avoid the pitfalls that have ensnared other fintech players.

Conclusion

Whether it's Alipay's traffic obsession or its platform-centric approach, it is evident that the platform is deeply entrenched in the quagmire of the Internet era, unable to extricate itself.

As more Internet players undergo transformations, Alipay's current strategy stands in contrast to the prevailing development direction.

This is the fundamental reason behind Alipay's increasing chaos and errors.

For Alipay, abandoning the Internet mindset may be the key to overcoming its current anxiety.

Deeply rooted in the Internet, Alipay requires a breakthrough, but such a breakthrough will undoubtedly transcend conventional Internet methods.