The Payment Applications Have a Positive Impact on Small Business

陳慧伊

Nowadays， mobile payments are accepted by a great amount of people， and it is more extensive and universal for people to own mobile phones than that in last century. Sometimes people use mobile phones to contact with others， sometimes phones can be used for entertainment. With the development of technology， mobile phones can offer more and more fantastic functions now. For instance， there are some applications for reading articles， singing songs， watching movies， and so on. But the most amazing one is payment application， which makes peoples life more flexible and convenient even on small business. To some degree， the payment applications have a positive impact on small business because they stimulate people to pay， promote economic development and encourage some additional businesses which are practical and advanced.

The payment applications benefit small business quite a lot that they stimulate people to pay on small business. There are three factors contributing to this phenomenon. Firstly， it is more convenient and faster to pay on small business with payment applications. United Nations （2012） report that when money is being given from a user to another， there is usually no complicated process through the network. So if people have a mobile phone with payment applications， there is no need to use cash and get back messy changes in their pockets while paying for goods. People only need to pay by payment applications in several seconds. Besides， transaction of small business is likely to be safer and the risk can be lower. Murray et al. （2017） show that two men from another country wanted to steal money from China， but they failed because there was only a little cash in the store which they broke in. Therefore， when people use payment applications instead of cash， they do not have to worry about if the wallet is stolen. And people can charge money easily because others do not know their passwords. Previously， many merchants worry about whether they have received the fake money. With payment applications， merchants can be reassured when getting money. Moreover， the payment applications are in a virtual world， so people are likely to spend more money on small business when using mobile payments rather than touch the money directly. Mozur （2017） mentions that “A friend didnt realize how reliant she had become on mobile payments until her bank called her.” If people use cash， it is not difficult for them to find out how much money they have spent because the wallet is getting empty. On the contrary， when using payments applications， the rest of money is looked like just a number. And the decrease of the number does not make sense. Therefore， people buy a lot of goods carelessly and the payment applications actually stimulate people to pay on small business.

The payment applications also promote the development of small business economy. To begin with， the network develops rapidly recent years which contributes to the development of small business. Groenfeldt （2017） indicates that a company with mobile payments service can develop quickly and gain more profit. Nowadays， technology is developing in an unbelievable speed.， and the network makes people communicate with each other in economy. Furthermore， lots of merchants use QR code to trade， so transaction of small business becomes more inexpensive and simplified. If two companies both provide with cheap payments， the one who accept QR code can keep costs lower than the one who use an expensive card reader （Mozur， 2017）. The QR code can be used any time and anywhere with a connected network， so people can scan the QR code instead of using cash or cards while paying. People can save much time on payment and merchants have time to make more deals. Also， more and more people are going to use payment applications now. According to Mozur （2017）， most of people are using payment applications rather than cash in major China now， if a customer orders something to eat in a restaurant， he will be asked if he would like to use Wechat or Alipay before paying. Almost everyone has a smart telephone， and as the network develops， people are getting used to using phones frequently. So people prefer paying with payment applications to cash. Therefore， the number of people who use payment applications to pay on small business is increasing quickly. And the development of small business improves rapidly.

Last but not least， the additional small business can be popularized. Above all， most of payment applications cooperate with additional business such as Taobao and WeiPinHui. Hargrave （2014） reveals that Mobile payments make them look bigger so they can cooperate with some large companies， but if they only accept cash， they will not have the chance. In recent years， Taobao grows fast because Ma Yun created a new way to pay—buying goods through the network. And there are so many stores on Taobao， so people can buy what they want on this application with the payment application Alipay. Equally， it is similar with JingDong， WeiPinHui and PinDuoDuo. In addition， more people may get jobs by establishing a TaoBao store which benefits small business. According to Murray et. al （2017）， Ant Financial is a parent company of Alipay， which is the most powerful new brand and much broader than Tencent. So many people choose to do business through Taobao and Alipay. If people would like to own a real store， they need to pay for the rent and something else. But if they establish an online store， they do not need to spend too much money. It is an wonderful choice for the people who have no enough time and money but wanna earn money such as students， housewife， and people who want to make a part-time job. Finally， trough the additional small business， people can buy goods easily and merchants can also profit. For example， Alipay not only cooperate with Taobao， but also cooperate with applications for tickets， bicycles， take-out restaurants. Similarly， Wechat can not only be used to chat， but also makes cooperation with additional small business. Wang et al. （2016） point out that some purchases are on the social platform from official channels， and there are several links to other applications. From Capgenmini（2016）， SVB believes that different companies can get profit and create a win-win?situation. There are also some on-sale goods on additional applications， so people would like to spend less money to buy them. The more they buy， the more merchants gain， the more profit those applications earn. It is a mutually beneficial way to promote additional small business.

In a word， the payment applications are beneficial for encouraging people to spend more money buying goods， promoting the development of small business economy and some other small business. Meanwhile， payment applications make life more convenient and flexible， which also stimulate economy global. With technology growing， these applications will develop more completely and perfectly in the future. They exactly show advantages to the society especially on small business. Therefore， the payment applications have a positive influence on small businesses. Now people become increasingly aware of the importance of payment applications. Hopefully mobile payments will show something more fantastic in the future.

Reference List

[1]Capgenmini and BNP Paribas.（2016）. World Payments Report 2016. Capgemini and BNP Paribas. [Online].Available from： http：//www.astrid-online.it/static/upload/worl/world_payments_report_wpr_2016.pdf [Accessed：30/12/2017]

[2]Groenfeldt， T.（2017）. Mobile Payments Can Boost Growth And Profitability. [Online]. Available from： https：//www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2017/03/08/mobile-payments-can-boost-growth-and-profitability/#1b84ff201396 [Accessed：07/12/2017]

[3]Hargrave， S.（2014）. New mobile technologies mean better cash flow is on the cards. [Online]. Available from： https：//www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/feb/20/mobile-credit-card-payments-technology [Accessed：07/12/2017]

[4]Mozur， P.（2017）. In Urban China， Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete.[Online].Available from： https：//www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/business/china-cash-smartphone-payments.html？mcubz=3 [Accessed：07/12/2017]

[5]Murray， L et al.（2017）. China's rapid uptake of mobile payments forcing businesses to Adapt. [Online]. Available from： http：//www.afr.com/business/retail/chinas-rapid-uptake-of-mobile-payments-forcing-businesses-to-adapt-20170406-gvetec [Accessed：07/12/2017]

[6]United Nations.（2012） Mobile Money for Business Development in the East African community. Switzerland： UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION

[7]Wang，KW et al.（2016）. How savvy， social shoppers are transforming Chinese e-commerce. [Online]. Available from： https：//www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/how-savvy-social-shoppers-are-transforming-chinese-e-commerce [Accessed：07/12/2017]