In 2018, WeChat's founder Zhang Xiaolong emphatically declared that WeChat was a tool, not a platform.

Since then, WeChat's development trajectory has closely adhered to Zhang's vision.

Even today, despite becoming a super app, WeChat remains firmly defined as a social tool.

In contrast, Alipay has persistently sought to shed its identity as merely a tool, unlike WeChat.

Whether through failed social integration attempts or the augmentation of content-oriented features, Alipay consistently strives to transcend its status as a mere payment tool.

Facts clearly indicate that Alipay's repeated efforts to transcend its payment-only identity have consistently fallen short.

To this day, Alipay's primary function and fundamental identity remain that of a payment tool.

As the mobile payments landscape intensifies, particularly with new strategies from WeChat Pay and JD Pay, Alipay's reluctance to remain a tool reveals underlying anxiety.

On December 23, Ant Group issued a company-wide letter announcing organizational adjustments to the Alipay business group to advance its dual-flywheel and AI-First strategies. These include forming a digital payments business group to accelerate innovative payment products and consolidate the payment foundation, establishing a new Alipay business group to boost user growth and activation, and commercialization processes. Both groups will implement a rotating president system.

Summarizing this restructuring, Alipay's ambition to transform from a mere tool into a large internet super-platform is undeniable.

While WeChat steadfastly maintains its identity as a social tool, continuously fostering new innovations, Alipay, unwilling to remain a tool, persists in its relentless pursuit, despite repeated setbacks. It is evident: Alipay's refusal to emulate WeChat's success formula dooms it to repeated failures.

I

Since its inception, Alipay has been the final piece of Alibaba's e-commerce ecosystem puzzle.

In this role, Alipay functioned as a tool.

Undeniably, by excellently performing its role as a payment tool, Alipay contributed significantly to Alibaba's commercial empire.

As Alibaba grew, so did Alipay, maturing into a well-established entity.

However, like the e-commerce industry in which it is embedded, Alipay's development has also hit a bottleneck.

To overcome this, Alipay has repeatedly attempted to break free from its confines.

Whether through forays into social media or heavy investments in content communities, these efforts are testament to this endeavor.

These attempts have indeed unveiled new horizons beyond payments for Alipay.

However, they have also diluted the rigor and seriousness essential for a financial payment tool.

Initially, Alipay's new ventures provided a refreshing change.

Over time, however, these ventures clashed with people's established perceptions of Alipay.

Reviewing Alipay's successful innovations, it is evident that they all centered around payments, with payments as their foundation.

This holds true for the success of Yu'ebao and Ant Forest.

Practice has shown that Alipay can innovate within the broader context of payments as its core.

Yet, the bedrock of these successes remains that Alipay is primarily a payment tool, not merely an internet product, let alone a super-platform.

Recognizing this explains why Alipay's past attempts to break free have consistently faltered.

II

Unlike Alipay, which has unsuccessfully attempted to break free, WeChat has consistently demonstrated new imaginative spaces while maintaining self-restraint and its core identity.

It is no exaggeration to say that WeChat has transcended being merely a "tool" in Zhang Xiaolong's words, evolving into a large platform.

Within the WeChat ecosystem, alongside WeChat Pay, there is a plethora of content represented by video accounts and e-commerce platforms like Meituan and Vipshop.

Despite encompassing diverse content and applications, WeChat's core identity remains that of a social tool.

When users open WeChat, their primary need is social interaction.

Ultimately, even as WeChat becomes a true super app, it remains rooted in its identity as a social tool.

The finance, content, and e-commerce within the WeChat ecosystem are derivatives to meet users' evolving needs beyond social interaction, unlike Alipay's attempt to create an internet platform while neglecting its core payment tool identity.

Ultimately, what accounts for WeChat's success?

A crucial factor is its consistent self-definition as a social tool, with products and services deriving almost entirely from this identity, rather than attempting to break free from being a payment tool, as Alipay has done.

This underscores why Alipay's attempts to break free have repeatedly failed.

A key reason is that Alipay views social media and content as serving payments, rather than payments serving social media and content.

By defining itself in this manner and seeking to break free, Alipay lost its direction from the outset.

III

With the deepening of internet interconnectivity and the dismantling of barriers between major platforms, the payment market landscape, where Alipay operates, is undergoing profound changes.

Whether from the relentless pressure of WeChat Pay or the advancements of JD Pay, Alipay's market share is gradually eroding.

For Alipay, finding a response to maintain its position in the mobile payment market is crucial.

This explains Alipay's continuous forays into new fields beyond its payment tool role.

We must understand this.

However, if these attempts are merely reactive without understanding Alipay's core identity, even the most aggressive moves will backfire.

Ultimately, for Alipay to maintain its position in the mobile payment market, it must, like WeChat, adhere to its core payment tool identity and innovate around payments. These new attempts must serve payments, not the other way around.

When Alipay returns to its roots as a payment tool, particularly leveraging AI to empower payments and uncover new imaginative spaces, it will be on the right path.

Conversely, if Alipay ceases to be Alipay and becomes a large internet platform, especially one that loses its payment core, it will also lose its identity.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Alipay's core identity remains payments, with everything revolving around this function.

This mirrors WeChat, whose core is social interaction, with everything revolving around it.

However, unlike WeChat, Alipay has consistently been reluctant to embrace its tool identity.

This has led to Alipay's proactive ventures into social media, content, and commercialization.

While these attempts showcase Alipay's commercial ambition and desire to break free, they also highlight its unwillingness to remain a mere tool.

Essentially, Alipay still aims to become an internet platform rather than a tool like WeChat.

If WeChat is cohesive yet scattered, Alipay is scattered both in form and spirit.

When Alipay's core begins to erode, and it strips away the framework supporting its growth, no matter how many new fields it enters, failure looms.

When Alipay refuses to become "WeChat," failure becomes inevitable.