So far, 32 companies have applied for the third-party payment license. According to the Administrative Measures for the Payment Services Provided by Non-financial Institutions launched by the People’s Bank of China in 2010, the deadline for getting the third-party payment licenses will be September 1, 2011, and those who are unable to get one by then will be not allowed to run a payment business in the future.
The 27 companies that gained the licenses reportedly include Alipay.com, China UMS, Tenpay.com, 99bill.com, Beijing Digital Wangfujing Technology Limited, and Beijing Lakala Network Technology Company.
Look to Mercator for a deeper analysis of the latest development in the emerging payments market in China in next week’s perspectives.