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Mobile is to simplify people’s lives and more convenient times. Maps, videos, music, information retrieval, etc. can be used in a single mobile phone at the same time, although they are totally different. The high level of convenience in information sharing and access to information is making mobile infiltrate every aspect of people’s lives. At the same time, the new payment method is on the rise. With mobile payments, it’s enough to just bring your phone and key to your trip (of course, you still need have enough money in your bank card).

Alipay is a third-party payment platform in China. It was launched on October 15, 2003. It was originally a department of Taobao.com, a website of Alibaba Group, and officially operated on December 8, 2004. As of March 31, 2018, Alipay users reached 870 million, is the world’s first volume of users of mobile payment services. In the first quarter of 2019, China Mobile’s payment market reached nearly 47.7 trillion yuan, of which Alipay ranked first with 53.21%.

Alipay is in the launch stage to serve Taobao shopping. As a guarantee platform for consumers and merchants, Alipay gives money to Alipay when consumers shop, and Alipay gives money to merchants when they receive the goods. Due to China’s strict credit card review system, Alipay has launched a Huabei (smilier with credit card function) and loan business. Consumers can use the Huabei for advance spending, or borrow money for interest-bearing loans. Consumers need to repay before the next repayment date. Alipay also launched a foreign exchange business. When consumers travel abroad, they can use Alipay to pay directly and provide an exchange rate lower than the bank, which greatly stimulates consumers to use it.

As the number of users increases, Alipay continues to introduce new services. At present, Alipay has reached cooperation with most Chinese businesses. When consumers enter the store, they only need to scan the QR code to pay. These businesses cover all aspects of people’s daily lives. Cash and bank card consumption is declining, and even many merchants only accept mobile payments and bank card payments in order to increase service speed. At the same time, Alipay has also reached cooperation with other software. When the consumer is shopping on other shopping platforms, the page will automatically jump to Alipay for checkout at checkout.

In the process of use, consumers only need to bind their bank card, ID card scan and bank reservation mobile phone number when registering, Alipay will contact the bank to verify and confirm. When the consumer completes the registration, no need to re-enter personal information on any platform. At the same time, consumers can also purchase insurance for their own accounts and choose the right financial management business. Yu’ebao will also provide consumers with higher interest rates than banks and settle funds on a daily basis.

The emergence of mobile payments has provided consumers with more and more convenience, but consumers are also more dependent on mobile phones. When consumers use mobile payment, personal information will also be exposed to the network. All aspects of living expenses reflect the characteristics of a person’s characters, and through these data analysis will push more targeted products for consumers. The more people you use, the more data you will grow. The convenience that mobile brings to consumers is also the convenience that consumers themselves bring to themselves. In the era of mobile payment, will you make your wallet free?

When we talk to other people, we not only want to communicate some kind of information, but we want to spread some information about ourselves.

–Jonah Borg and Catherine Mickman

Social currency is the virtual wealth symbol of the mobile Internet era. It uses the characteristics of people willing to share with others to shape their own product or idea, so they achieve the purpose of word of mouth. Social currency reflects the characteristics of interpersonal interaction. The content that we usually pay attention to, comments and likes on our social media can be called social currency. Like currency, the value of “social currency” lies in circulation. Social media is everyone’s social currency trading market. Social currency is purchased merchandise belonging and a sense of connection with others. For example, these behaviours are circulation of social currencies:

• You share a selfie to buy a friend’s praise.
• Your share photos and texts when you travel to get comments from friends
• You share some music to make friends feel the taste of you.
• You share some opinions and express your own ideas.

Each individual and enterprise is a social currency issuing bank. The purpose of issuing social currency is to influence others’ perceptions and impressions of individuals, that is, to form their own brands. Nowadays, more and more brands recognise the marketing value of social media and start use that. Many companies use social media to distribute social currency for “self-propagation” of brands. Every time an individual or a company send and share on a self-media platform such as WeChat, Weibo, Live, and Facebook is a circulation of social currency. The most important thing in the online marketing is the influence of network communication and the most valuable is the user’s attention. Social currency is a kind of “currency” between user attention and communication influence.

Sometimes, when consumers buy or use a brand, the product function is second. What they really care about is the benefits of the brand, such as helping them to create a good image in front of others. Amazon’s “Everyone is a wonderful book” Every page that is shared is showing friends what kind of person they are, or wanting others to think that they are such people. Using people’s psychology to build a platform for them to display their image is an important factor in the rapid fission of Amazon H5 in the Wechat.

This share is similar to many, such as the annual summary of NetEase cloud music, which is also a personal image of the show – a personal taste in music. For example, the movie “World of Warcraft”, when the film was promoted, its slogan “for the tribe” made many gamers have a sense of belonging. The idea of fighting for the respective camps through watching movies is getting stronger.

Taking WeChat as an example, WeChat communication has become the top priority for government, media, enterprises, and personal new media. According to CNNIC data, by the end of the first quarter of 2019, WeChat’s monthly active users were approximately 1.112 billion. By the end of 2018, WeChat’s small program has covered more than 200 sub-sectors, and government and business areas being the most active with more than 100 billion service users. Zhang Xiaolong, the father of WeChat, said in the WeChat public class that the majority of the WeChat public account reads from the circle of friends, that is, “20% of users go to the subscription number to select content, and 80% of users read the content in the circle of friends.”

Brand communication is the transmission of information between businesses and consumers, which are designed to deliver unique value and corporate communication. Brand communication helps companies establish a corporate image and further influence consumers’ perceptions of the brand. The value of brand communication is to enable consumers to produce virtually unconscious, without making a purchase. At the same time, brands and consumers can establish a relationship of trust and loyalty.

The emergence of social media is changing the relationship between business and consumers. When the network is underdeveloped, consumers are in a state of passive understanding. In the past, the information that consumers’ acceptance was backward and limited. People’s understanding of brands came mainly from advertising. Now, consumers become active to receive information. The social media has changed information more flow. Transparent disclosure of information allows consumers to evaluate companies or products in many accepts. People no longer only rely on advertising information, instead of that can be obtained through social networking software, social relationships. More people are willing to share their experiences on the Internet, and there are more interactive modes, which also accelerate information sharing.

Business are aware of the importance of brand communication. More and more companies have established official public accounts such as WeChat, Weibo to provide consumers with real-time and authoritative information. How to push the company’s product information to the target customer at the right time, or to make potential customers interested in the products is the new challenge. At the same time, consumers also use social platforms to create personal accounts for sharing, and brands interact with them through public accounts.

In 2011, Coca-Cola launched “share a coke with …” activities. In the next few years, the “nickname bottle”, “lyric bottle” and “line bottle” were introduced. Consumers shared their “Coca Cole” on major social media. In China, there are also some people who use Coca-Cola to express their feelings. On Coca-Cola’s official Weibo, they launched a topic to engage consumers in discussions and interaction with each other.

Durex’s brand communication also breaks the sensitive nature of the product itself. Durex’s Weibo broke the formality of the traditional official platform style, instead of creating a surprise for the public with a humorous style. Durex cleverly keeps up with Weibo hotspots and interesting interactions to make it owns many fans. The brand image becomes vivid and full of emotions without awareness.

At the same time, these social media also have a public supervision role for the company. First, if there is a product problem, consumers will stand up and criticize the product. This information is spread quickly and the content is not controlled. Second, when companies have some problems or a crisis of trust, many consumers will wait for the official authoritative response. The effective response information released in time can directly reduce the damage to the brand’s image, and vice versa.

In 2018, China’s Didi happened that a flight attendant was killed. After confirming the flight attendant was killed, Didi officials had not responded to public. Some brief official declared only vague passing, which caused great dissatisfaction of consumers. The wrong behavior of Didi led to the joint resistance of consumers. Afterwards, although Didi made remedial actions, the brand image has already been greatly damaged.

Social media not only provides opportunities for brand communication, but also invisibly constrains the brand. Every business needs to consider rational using.

According to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Centre（CNNIC）, as of December 2018, the number of Chinese netizens reached 829 million, with a penetration rate of 59.6%. The proportion of Internet users accessing the Internet through mobile phones is as high as 98.6%. The development of the Internet is increasingly changing consumer behaviour. Social media has changed the situation that information is unilaterally transmitted from the media to consumers, and consumers are passively accepted. Instead, consumers are multi-directionally spread through interaction and participation. The Internet allows consumers to form different social circles in which information can be spread and expanded. Companies need to constantly learn how to use new media for efficient marketing.

On November 11, 2009, Alibaba used social media to create a new festival in China, Singles’ Day. Tmall also sets the 11th of each year as a fixed shopping day. Tmall conveys to consumers that they are not an e-commerce platform that only cares about sales, but provides consumers with a new, comfortable and enjoyable shopping experience.

Alibaba implements online and offline participation activities to promote shopping day.

Online:

• They use the most popular TV stations in China to advertising, and they are also advertising on China’s video broadcast sites – Youku, Tencent and IQiyi.

• Through the Sina, RED Book and other hot search topic list to improve consumer awareness about the activity.

• In the Tmall App, Alibaba launched a series of interactive activities. Regularly distribute single-day shopping red envelopes every day on the fix time, play games with friends to win shopping red envelopes, share with different social platforms to win game opportunities, and so on. Through these activities, consumer engagement is increased, and common topics are created within the circle of consumer friends, thereby making consumers interested in activities.

• Hosting evening parties, through stars and sales representatives, launch different discounts and items that they think are worth buying. Give consumers a more detailed understanding of the product and promote demand.

Offline:

• Launching a search for Tmall in some major cities. Search for the Tmall logo and swipe it with your phone to infiltrate the activity into your daily routine.

• Launch a face-to-face event for friends. When friends are together, you can open Tmall and shake your phone to get the activity red envelope, which add new entertainment to a gathering of friends.

• Embed advertisements in subways, bus stops and outdoor billboards to make event advertisements accessible and unconsciously deepen consumer impressions.

Alibaba fully integrates social media with consumer behaviour. Use social media to advertise on the basis of understanding consumer behaviour and change consumer behaviour through social media. Alibaba’s business model and marketing methods have jointly promoted the success of the event. Each stage plays an important role. Corporate promotions are no longer just a simple discount event, but become a national participation activity. The Singles’ Day (double eleven became a corporate symbol of Alibaba. Every time the double eleven comes, everyone thinks of the upcoming Tmall promotion. In the end, Alibaba achieved corporate profits.

Under a Single Day approaching, are you ready?