Under the catalysis of the epidemic, the digital economy has ushered in the rapid development, which has become a tacit consensus among various industries.

The same is true for offline merchants. It is reported that under the drive of supply and demand and the catalysis of epidemic situation, the digital upgrading of offline merchants in China has entered a new stage of development, that is, from the 1.0 stage of operation informatization, the 2.0 stage of online operation, to the current stage of offline digital 3.0.

In this context, mobile payment, as the entrance to the digital upgrading of prying merchants, naturally ushered in a greater opportunity for development. According to iResearch, China's third-party mobile payment market will reach 456.2 trillion yuan in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.9 percent from 2020 to 2025. At the same time, as mobile payments gradually infiltrate into the sinking market, the market space of the industry is expected to further expand.

At this time, as a payment-based technology platform and one of the leaders in the mobile payment industry, mobile card (09923) also testified to the growth potential of the industry with the latest "transcript".

On March 31, the card released its annual performance data for 2021. According to the financial report, in 2021, the company achieved revenue of 3.058 billion yuan, an increase of 33.4% over the same period last year, and an adjusted net profit of 435 million yuan, an increase of 20.6% over the same period last year. On the whole, the two core financial indicators, revenue and net profit, show a trend of steady growth.

It should be pointed out that the revenue and net profit of the mobile card in 2021 exceeded the agency's expectations. According to China Renaissance Capital Investment, CITIC Construction Investment, CICC, Citigroup and other 13 institutions forecast that the card transfer income of 2.963 billion yuan in 2021, adjusted net profit of 384 million yuan.

In addition to revenue, net profit growth is eye-catching, transfer card this financial report is also no lack of some other highlights. For example, the Qishi e-commerce business has developed rapidly and has become a new growth engine of the company. Or, the payment business continues to play a pillar role, carrying the banner of "steady growth".

So, what is curious is, apart from the favorable market potential of "external factors", what kind of strategic layout has the mobile card made in order to reap good growth momentum in 2021?

According to Zhitong Financial APP, mobile card is a payment-based technology platform, which mainly connects merchants and consumers through different kinds of payment services such as QR code and bank card, and provides value-added services including SaaS digital solutions, precision marketing, financial technology and e-commerce.

From the perspective of income structure, it mainly obtains income through three major businesses: one-stop payment service, merchant solution and to-store e-commerce service. Through the three major business of card transfer, we may be able to see the growth momentum hidden behind it.

On the one hand, the arrival e-commerce business is growing by leaps and bounds, and local life services are becoming a new growth engine for card transfer under the "general trend".

According to the disclosure of the financial report, the growth trend of the e-commerce business that the mobile card launched at the end of 2020 is the most bright spot that can not be ignored in the company's financial report.

It is reported that in 2021, the company's GMV and revenue of store-to-store e-commerce services are 398 million yuan and 148 million yuan respectively, and the number of paying customers and inventory units are 5.2 million and 159000 respectively, covering about 300 domestic cities. From this, we can see that the company's arrival e-commerce business has achieved "great-leap-forward" growth in only one year, becoming the company's new growth engine.

So, what is the reason why mobile cards can achieve "leapfrog" growth?

After a deep study of the financial report, it is not difficult to find that behind the "great-leap-forward" growth of the card-to-store e-commerce business, it is inseparable from the advantages of the "external cause" market development space and the "external cause" own resource advantages.

Specifically, in terms of "external causes", the current domestic local life service market has great potential for development-iResearch Consulting expects that China's local life service market will reach 35 trillion yuan by 2025, with an online penetration rate of 30.8%. In terms of "internal cause", the mobile card has rich B-end merchant resources and C-end consumer resources, which has the advantage of getting customers. At the same time, the company's price concessions and diversified sales channels are also an important driving force for moving cards to expand local life business, such as offline reuse payment push network, the resource advantage of nearly 15000 sales agents may achieve a significant customer conversion effect. In addition, online docking large platform high-quality traffic, and through the acquisition of Qianhui to expand marketing channels, but also to further provide help for the company's store-to-store e-commerce business.

On the other hand, the transaction scale and income of payment business have risen, and the construction of a strong channel network has further consolidated the momentum of growth.

According to the financial report, the revenue of the one-stop payment service with mobile card was 2.268 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 24% over the same period last year. At the same time, the number of active payment service merchants and consumers touched by one-stop payment services reached an all-time high, recording 7.3 million and 945 million respectively, up 32.5% and 46.5% respectively over the same period last year.

In addition, the company's GPV (total payments) also grew strongly during the period-up 45.5 per cent year-on-year to 2.12 trillion yuan. Of this total, the GPV of application-based payment services grew by 59.0 per cent year-on-year, from 55.4 per cent in 2020 to 60.5 per cent in 2021.

It should be pointed out that the "pillar business" one-stop payment service of mobile card can continue to grow steadily, which has something to do with its strong channel network construction. It is reported that by the end of 2021, the company has established channel networks in 30 provinces and 324 cities across the country, and established cooperation with nearly 15000 independent sales agents and sales partners. At the same time, the company also shares resources with 95 banks, including joint-stock banks, urban commercial banks and rural commercial banks.

Based on the above, we can see that the strong and extensive channel network layout of the mobile card is tantamount to creating a "moat" for the company's performance to continue to grow upward, promoting the rapid growth of the number of merchants and reaching consumers at the same time, it has also laid a solid foundation for the sustained growth of the company's one-stop payment service business, which in turn promotes the overall performance improvement.

In addition, the continued substantial growth in merchant solution revenue has also provided a driving force for the continued upward performance of mobile cards.

During the reporting period, mobile card merchant solutions recorded revenue of 642 million yuan, an increase of 38.5% over the same period last year. By the end of 2021, the number of active merchant solutions reached 1.38 million, an increase of 53.3% over the same period last year. As the second largest main business, the continued substantial growth of merchant solutions further confirms its development potential.

According to the financial disclosure, the increase given by the transfer card is due to "the increase in the number of customers of one-stop payment services for merchant solutions". Looking at the essence through the phenomenon, there is no lack of the help of its own resource advantage and technological advantage behind the substantial growth of this business.

Specifically, the company's merchant solutions mainly include SaaS digital solutions, precision marketing services and financial technology services, which are technology-enabled value-added services. As the mobile card accumulates rich B-end merchant resources and C-end consumer resources, it has a natural advantage in the field of value-added services for small and micro enterprises. At the same time, the company has considerable exposure to online docking of high-quality traffic on large platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou Technology and Weibo Corp, so it also has operational advantages. In addition, the mobile card also independently develops SaaS digital solutions, which can also greatly improve the operational efficiency of small and micro merchants.

Therefore, with the help of the above development advantages, the merchant solution of moving card will naturally be able to maintain the trend of sustained growth, and then make some contribution to the improvement of the company's overall performance.

To sum up, it is not difficult to see that the data that mobile card can record double increase in revenue and net profit in 2021 is not achieved overnight, but the inevitable result of the resonance of many factors, such as the pillar effect of the core business payment business, the release of new momentum of growth by newly developed e-commerce and the sustained substantial growth of commercial solutions.

Considering the broad market space and the synergy with the business, it is expected that the card will release a steady stream of growth momentum in the future, promoting the performance and stock price to a new level, we will wait and see.