Alipay's red envelope service may put users' info at risk
Staff Reporter
2015-01-31
Images of Alipay's red envelope service on a smartphone. (Internet photo)
Alipay, the third-party online payment service sponsored by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, launched a red envelop service on Jan. 26, aiming at its major rival WeChat's red envelop service, which was a huge success last year, reports Beijing-based China Economic Net.
Clicking the front page of Alipay 8.5's Alipay Wallet app, users will find four types of red envelope options. The "Personal red envelope" gives red envelopes to users' friends through the phonebook on Alipay Wallet; the "face-to-face red envelope" can be activated when users are facing each other; users can share the "sequence red envelope" through Alipay Wallet and Laiwang, Alibaba's instant messaging app; and the "group red envelope" can be shared through Laiwang groups. However, if users have more than one Alipay account, it will automatically be shown without the users' permission. This flaw increases the risk of misuse of users' personal information, the report said.
Alipay, which recently reached its 10th year in the business, currently dominates the payment service market in China due to the control of its parent company, Alibaba, over the e-commerce market. Its main rival, Tencent, has been successfully ruling the social media sector through its popular mobile app WeChat.
Alibaba was recently reported to be introducing a new messaging feature in its Alipay service while Tencent has been promoting WeChat's payment feature and developing the app as a portal that incorporates functions of different apps. Market analysts said a direct confrontation between the two is likely to occur in the near future.
