Today, on June 27, the social network VKontakte will launch its own payment system VK Pay, RBC
reported with reference to company representatives. The launch will take place at about 12:00 Moscow time. At first, all payments in the system can be carried out
without commission . Also, the system will not charge a fee for depositing and withdrawing funds.
Now Mail.ru (owner of Vkontakte) is important to form a large audience of users, attract small and medium business to the platform, and then you can enter a commission for all users. “Now monetization is not a priority. It is important for us to create a product and scale it to a wide audience, ”said the representative of the social network in a comment to RBC
Reportedly, the integration of the payment system will take place in two stages:
1. Communities
At the first stage, payment acceptance via VK Pay is activated by the owners of all VKontakte communities. It is assumed that in the future they will include representatives of small and medium-sized businesses who use social networks as the main channel for promoting their products.
In theory, each online store or individual entrepreneur can open a community on the Vkontakte site and accept payments without a fee from customers through the integrated payment system. This is also beneficial from the point of view that the VK Pay system is not a full-fledged banking service. Accordingly, there is no need to bother with registration of bank documents, payment orders, invoices, to report on the flow of funds. It can be assumed that these payments are not visible to the tax inspectorate, unless the entrepreneur deliberately declares them.
The situation is overshadowed by one circumstance. Withdrawal by users is still limited to the amount of 200 thousand rubles. per month. In addition, the maximum amount of transactions is limited to 60 thousand rubles. per month. These numbers immediately offset the benefits of the system for normal business, which works from a user account, but does not bother opening multiple accounts and other ways to bypass the limits.
However, for large customers, no limits apply. Sources close to the company report that the social network will earn at the expense of large players, for whom individual conditions will be created for working with the payment platform.
2. Marketplace
The second stage of network development is the construction of a full-fledged marketplace on the basis of a social network, that is, an e-commerce site, where all significant companies will be represented. Services for Vkontakte users will be offered by partners of the company. Among them are services for the sale of air and railway tickets OneTwoTrip, tickets for entertainment events - Kassir.ru and ShowGoGo, food delivery services of Grow Food and Delivery Club, a call to the doctor at home DOC +, etc. integrated into partner sites, said the representative of "VKontakte". He noted that partners will be able to offer special conditions and promotions for VKontakte users, inaccessible to other buyers.
According to Alexander Gorny, Director for Strategy and Analysis of Mail.Ru Group, in a few years, the turnover of e-commerce through the VKontakte communities can reach 100 billion rubles. in year.
Chinese experience
The partners of the payment platform believe that the launch of VK Pay is a logical step towards the development of the Vkontakte social network, which turns into a transaction platform and thus makes it possible to monetize existing services. Having increased the user base to 97 million, it’s time to more actively make money on them, that is, to monetize the audience.
For example, in China, the payment system based on the WeChat messenger is extremely popular, which around 800 million people around the world use, including almost every adult Chinese. WeChat is a whole ecosystem that includes a mobile wallet, a built-in browser, an online store, etc. It contains all of the Chinese government institutions. Here you can pay a receipt at a state institution or make an appointment with a doctor. Probably, in Russia, a similar ecosystem (primarily commercial) Mail.ru wants to build on the basis of social "Vkontakte". Perhaps the best service can be provided if you integrate "Vkontakte" with authorization through "State Services". An alternative could be a Telegram based payment system.
UPD. The
official launch took place in test mode. “For the first VK Pay users, we are launching a beta version of the new section with special offers from partners. In the new section, you can also replenish the balance of the phone, buy votes on VKontakte, pay traffic police fines and other popular services. We offer translations for every taste: to a friend - by the link VKontakte; not the closest person - by phone number; to a stranger from whom you bought bitcoins - using a QR code, ”the press release says.
