AUSTRALIAN-listed Chinese mobile commerce platform 99 Wuxian will push harder into servicing that nation’s growing “staff loyalty” schemes run by banks and airlines as it seeks to expand its 65 million user base.
The company’s founder and chief executive Amalisia Zhang is in Australia meeting investors to tout the ambitious growth plan.
At present 99 Wuxian is best known for its sales platform which sits within the online platform of banks and offers customers the chance to make transactions — for purchases such as the weekly shopping — while using their online bank account.
It has about 60 banks and financial institutions on its books in China.
Its 65 million customers conducted 155.7 billion transactions last year, with its focus on smaller transactions, Ms Zhang says.
About 90 per cent of these were in the popular area of “virtual goods”, or items such as phone charge
But Ms Zhang says loyalty programs are also a growing area within China’s rapidly expanding middle class.
“If you look at the Chinese we haven’t paid attention to the employee loyalty programs. But in the past few years it is growing,” she says.
“There is no one else in China offering such a platform.”
Chinese companies have traditionally issued weekly “loyalty rewards” — handing out goodies such as moon cakes — but Ms Zhang says many corporates are interested in updating this concept to the online world.
The spend from loyalty programs is usually bigger and includes online purchasing of meals, so the slice of the transaction 99 Wuxian takes is much larger.
She said of 99 Wuxian’s 60 bank customers, four of these had already signed up to allow its staff to claim loyalty points on its platforms.
Ms Zhang says the company is in discussions to expand with other clients including Chinese airlines and carmakers.
The company has endured a rocky road since listing, with its shares initially hitting a high of 73c in July 2014 but falling as low as 6.9c last month. Ms Zhang says a general fear among Australian investors about a lack of transparency and poor governance in China had been hurting her company’s share price.
Using the online service is easy. As clients are logged on to their bank already, they don't have to go through other logons to access a huge array of retailers, she says.
cards, petrol cards or Starbucks, McDonald’s or Pizza Hut vouchers.