On March 26, Alipay started charging users a service fee of 0.1 percent on credit card bill payments above 2,000 yuan ($294) each month through the app, Guangzhou Daily reported.

(Photo/CGTN)

Alipay explained that the adjustment is due to a rise in its operational costs as the digital wallet service has been subsidizing the commission charge for each credit card repayment transaction.

WeChat already made two adjustments last year. Firstly, it added a service fee of 0.1 percent for credit card bill repayments over 5,000 yuan, and then later, the company began to charge 0.1 percent for all credit card bill repayments, regardless of the amount.

Statistics indicated that the value of China’s third-party payment market reached 43.8 trillion yuan in 2018, about 92.5 percent of which was dominated by Alipay and WeChat Pay.

They have grown beyond providing subsidies to enhance user loyalty. Instead, they are now starting to categorize users, to provide high-quality services to those with stronger consumption power.