"LET THE users decide who wins the game, not monopoly and power." So said Jack Ma in 2014. when Alipay, the slick payment service he created, came under attack from China's lumbering state-owned banks. Six years on, the users have decided, and Alipay and its rival, Tenpay, known mainly for WeChat Pay, have won. There is little question that they constitute a duopoly. Alipay has a 54% share and Tenpay 39% of the Chinese mobile-payments market by value, according to Analysys, a research firm. And mobile today accounts for more than half of all non-cash retail payments in China (see chart on next page). Not surprisingly, then, the former upstarts now face questions about their own power. According to Reuters, the central bank accuses them of misusing their dominance to limit competition. It reported on July 31st that the government's antitrust committee is considering whether to investigate them, though has yet to make a final decision.
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