第三方支付指基于互联网，提供线上（互联网）和线下（电话及手机）支付渠道，完成从用户到商户的在线货币支付、资金清算、查询统计等系列过程的一种支付交易方式。
2010年，中国第三方支付市场交易规模突破万亿大关，达到11395亿元，中国第三方支付市场正处于发展初期阶段，预计今后几年仍将快速发展。
图：2011-2013年中国第三方支付市场交易规模预测 
Source: ResearchInChina
2010年6月14日，中国人民银行颁布《非金融机构支付服务管理办法》（下称《办法》），对国内第三方支付行业实施正式的监管。2011年5月26日中国人民银行向支付宝、财付通、银联商务、快钱等27家第三方支付公司颁发了首批《支付业务许可证》，其中支付宝、财付通、银联商务是中国第三方支付市场份额排在前三位的企业。
支付宝：阿里巴巴旗下第三方支付平台。截至2010年12月，支付宝注册用户数突破5.5亿，日交易额达26亿人民币，日交易笔数达到1100万笔。预计两年内支付宝将达到每年约1万亿元交易量水平。
财付通：为腾讯旗下的第三方支付平台。截至2010年12月，财付通的个人用户1.5亿，合作商户超过40万家。
Chinapay：为多元化第三方支付服务商，其业务规模的增长主要依靠基金、保险在线支付服务等拥有垄断优势的领域来推动，不过这种垄断优势正在逐步减弱。互联网在线支付并非其核心业务，其在该领域的投入有限，市场竞争力不明显。
快钱：截至2011年4月30日，快钱拥有9100万注册用户，逾98万商业合作伙伴，交易量突破1000亿元。2008 -2009 年，快钱逐步将业务重点放在细分市场上（保险、基金等行业），进行差异化竞争。
易宝支付：是一家综合性支付平台，截止2010年11月26日，日交易额突破2亿元，交易笔数超过100万，已签约的大中型商家超过10000家。易宝支付在整个电话支付市场占据领先者角色。2008-2010年，易宝支付在航空、电信、教育等领域发展迅速。
网银在线：网银在线的互联网在线支付业务价格较低，成为其主要的竞争优势；此外，线下信用卡支付业务也拥有先入的优势。
盛付通：是盛大集团旗下独立的第三方支付企业，注册资本2.5亿元，员工约250人，主要是依托盛大集团的文学、音乐、影视、游戏、旅游业务，并为其提供支付解决方案。
通联支付：总部位于上海，注册资本金13.6亿元。主要服务于POS终端的线下支付、互联网的线上支付、电话call center的语音支付、以及其他自助终端设备的支付服务。
钱袋网：注册资金1亿元人民币，员工300余人。在移动支付方面，钱袋网凭借自身强大的技术研发实力，开发出拥有完全自主知识产权的智能卡芯片产品——手机钱袋QDSIM扩展卡。
拉卡拉：成立于2005年，是联想控股成员企业，累计投资3.5亿元，截止到2011年1月共设立了38个分公司及办事处，员工1000多人。目前，拉卡拉已在230多个城市开通了约5万个拉卡拉便利支付点，进入了5万个办公室、以及10万户家庭中。目前拉卡拉便利支付点的数量已是邮局的3倍。
Third-party payment refers to an Internet-based means of exchange that
provides online (Internet) and offline (telephone & mobile phone)
payment channels enabling user-to-merchant online payment, fund
settlement, inquiries and statistics, etc.
In 2010, market
transaction volume of third-party payment broke through RMB 1 trillion
and registered RMB 1.1395 trillion in China. However, third-party
payment market is still in its infancy stage and is expected to develop
rapidly in the next several years.
Transaction Volume of Third-Party Payment Market in China, 2005-2013E 
Source: ResearchInChina
People’s
Bank of China issued “Regulation on Payment Service of Non-financial
Organization” on 14 Jun. 2010, with the aim to officially supervise the
domestic third-party payment industry. On 26 May 2011, People’s Bank of
China granted the first batch of “Payment Transaction License” to 27
third-party payment companies including Alipay, Tenpay, ChinaPay and
99Bill. In terms of market share, the top three third-party payment
service providers in China are Alipay, Tenpay and ChinaPay.
Alipay: Alipay
is a third-party payment platform that belongs to Alibaba group. As of
Dec. 2010, its number of registered users broke through 550 million, and
daily transaction value reached RMB 2.6 billion and daily number of
transactions hit 11 million. It is expected that the annual transaction
value of Alipay will achieve about RMB 1 trillion in each of the next
two years.
TenPay: As Tencent’s third-party payment
platform, TenPay accumulated 150 million personal users and over 400
thousand cooperative merchants till Dec. 2010.
ChinaPay: ChinaPay
is a third-party payment service provider with diversified business.
Its business growth is mainly driven by those monopolistic fields
including fund and insurance online payment. However, this monopolistic
advantage is gradually diminished. In addition, with limited investment,
online payment service is not the core business of ChinaPay, and its
competitiveness is weak.
99Bill: As of 30 Apr.
2011, with transaction volume over RMB 100 billion, 99bill has 91
million registered users and over 980 thousand business partners. During
2008-2009, 99Bill shifted its major business to the segment markets,
including insurance and fund industries, to get involved in the
differential competition.
YeePay: YeePay is an
integrated payment platform. Till 26 Nov. 2010, with over 10 thousand
large and medium signed merchants, its daily transaction volume and
number of transactions exceeded RMB200 million and 1 million
respectively. Moreover, YeePay plays a leading role in the telephone
payment market. During 2008-2010, it experienced rapid development in
the fields of aviation, telecommunication and education.
Chinabank Payments:
The lower online payment price is the key competitive advantage of
Chinabank Payments. In addition, its offline credit card payment
business has the early entry advantage.
Shengpay:
With a registered capital of RMB250 million and about 250 employees,
Shengpay is an independent third-party payment service provider belongs
to Shanda Group. It provides payment solution for Shanda’s business
including literature, music, film, recreation and tourism.
All In Pay: Headquartered
in Shanghai, All In Pay possesses registered capital of RMB 1.36
billion. Its main services include offline payment for POS machine,
online payment service, telephone payment through call center, and
payment service for other self-service terminal equipment.
Qiandai: Qiandai
has registered capital of RMB 100 million and over 300 employees. In
the field of mobile payment, backed by its technical R&D strength,
Qiandai has developed QDSIM expansion card, a smart card chip product
with full intellectual property rights.
Lakala: Founded
in 2005, Lakala is a member enterprise of Lenovo Holdings with
accumulative investment of RMB 350 million. As of Jan. 2011, it had 38
branches and offices in total, with over 1000 employees. Currently,
Lakala has set up approximately 50 thousand convenient payment sites in
over 230 cities, and can be found in over 50 thousand offices and 100
thousand households. Moreover, at present, the number of Lakala’s
convenient payment sites is 3 times of the number of post offices.