????上周,，馬云提出要讓支付寶（Alipay）和蘋果支付（Apple Pay）在中國(guó)合作，不過(guò)當(dāng)時(shí)他的這個(gè)提議顯得并不合理,。

????支付寶是中國(guó)當(dāng)下最熱門的在線支付系統(tǒng),，人們用它支付淘寶（Taobao）上的訂單，繳納物業(yè)費(fèi)，購(gòu)買電影票,，還可在其他購(gòu)物網(wǎng)站上消費(fèi),。然而，支付寶的地位與擁有數(shù)萬(wàn)個(gè)商家和刷卡網(wǎng)絡(luò)的Visa,、萬(wàn)事達(dá)（Mastercard）或中國(guó)銀聯(lián)（UnionPay）不盡相同,。漫步在北京或者上海的街頭，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)銀聯(lián)的標(biāo)志隨處可見(jiàn)——作為國(guó)有支付處理機(jī)構(gòu),，銀聯(lián)在中國(guó)具有壟斷地位——而支付寶的標(biāo)志卻寥寥無(wú)幾,。

????與此同時(shí)，蘋果（Apple）的新產(chǎn)品——蘋果支付——更多的是一種實(shí)地體驗(yàn),。你無(wú)需在結(jié)賬柜臺(tái)刷卡,，而只需在與蘋果簽約的20萬(wàn)家門店內(nèi)，輕松按下iPhone的home鍵就能完成付款,。是的,，蘋果手機(jī)上的在線組件讓在線購(gòu)物變得更方便了，但它的關(guān)鍵還是物理組件,，而支付寶的特色則是在線支付,。

????所以當(dāng)馬云拋出橄欖枝時(shí)，我們并不清楚支付寶在中國(guó)能給蘋果帶來(lái)什么：它在國(guó)內(nèi)沒(méi)有支付設(shè)施,，盡管曾經(jīng)有過(guò)——支付寶曾在一些商家的收銀臺(tái)前提供二維碼,，顧客可以掃描二維碼來(lái)付款，而銀聯(lián)隨后表示,，支付寶必須通過(guò)銀聯(lián)網(wǎng)絡(luò)才能完成支付處理,。

????但馬云并不是輕率地開(kāi)腔，這番話極有分量,，即便你很難理解,。就在馬云在眾目睽睽下與蒂姆?庫(kù)克的對(duì)話剛過(guò)去兩天，中國(guó)政府就宣布了將對(duì)支付政策做出巨大改變,，馬云的合作設(shè)想隨之得到有利支持,。

????上周三，由李克強(qiáng)總理領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的中國(guó)國(guó)務(wù)院宣布,，中國(guó)將對(duì)Visa、萬(wàn)事達(dá)和美國(guó)運(yùn)通（American Express）等國(guó)外公司開(kāi)放支付系統(tǒng),。一直處于弱勢(shì)地位的支付寶也有可能位列其中,。十多年來(lái)，中國(guó)一直禁止這些公司發(fā)放自己的銀行卡,，強(qiáng)迫他們使用銀聯(lián)網(wǎng)絡(luò)并繳納費(fèi)用,。在此期間，銀聯(lián)成長(zhǎng)為一家羽翼豐滿的壟斷巨頭。

????支付寶在面對(duì)銀聯(lián)時(shí)遭遇了類似困境,。去年8月,，在銀聯(lián)表示支付寶的交易必須納入銀聯(lián)網(wǎng)絡(luò)后，支付寶突然宣布,，由于“明顯的原因”,，將關(guān)閉線下銷售點(diǎn)的服務(wù)——盡管數(shù)量非常有限。

????中國(guó)商業(yè)媒體財(cái)新（Caixin）當(dāng)時(shí)引用了一個(gè)消息源的說(shuō)法：“支付寶決定徹底退出線下支付領(lǐng)域,，因?yàn)樗幌胧艿姐y聯(lián)的控制,。”

????The idea of an Alipay and Apple Pay partnership in China —suggested by Jack Ma this week—didn’t make a lot of sense when he said it.

????Alipay is China’s most popular online payment system used for online purchases including Taobao orders, paying utility bills, movie tickets, and other shopping sites. It is not like Visa, Mastercard, or China’s own UnionPay, which have a network of tens of thousands of merchants and swipe stations. Walk around Beijing or Shanghai and you’ll see plenty of signs for UnionPay, the state-owned processor that enjoys a monopoly within China, and barely any for Alipay.

????Apple’s new Apple Pay, meanwhile, is a mostly physical experience. You forgo the hassle of swiping a credit card at the cash register for the ease of touching the iPhone’s home button at two hundred thousand locations that have signed on with Apple. Yes, it has an online component that makes online shopping easier, but its allure is the physical component, just as Alipay’s allure is online.

????So when Ma brought up a partnership, it wasn’t clear what Alipay could offer Apple in China: it doesn’t have payment installations across the country and even where it did—in some stores it previously setup QR codes at cash registers that customers scanned with Alipay—UnionPay told Alipay to route them through UnionPay’s network.

????But Jack Ma doesn’t choose his words lightly. What he says carry weight even if it is difficult to understand. Just two days after he spoke on a stage with Tim Cook in the audience, China’s government announced a massive change to the payments system that supported Ma’s idea of a partnership.

????Late Wednesday, China’s State Council, the Communist Party’s 35-member policy board led by Premier Li Keqiang, announced China would open its payment system to foreign companies like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, which it had long discriminated against. It might have well have added Alipay, which has also been disadvantaged. China has blocked foreigners for more than a decade from issuing their own cards and forced them to use UnionPay’s network, handing over a cut of the fees. During that time, UnionPay grew into a full-blown monopoly.

????Alipay has similarly faced off against UnionPay. Last August, Alipay abruptly said it shut down its offline point-of-sales service—the limited physical locations it had—for “obvious reasons” after UnionPay said Alipay’s transactions must be integrated into its network. It was a bold power grab, but one with state support.

????“Alipay decided to quit offline payments altogether because it does not want to subject itself to UnionPay’s control,” China’s business magazine Caixin quoted a source saying at the time.