[mwexler]

All the payment stuff aside, how does money get into the Alipay/Wechat ecosystem? How do I add money to the account?

In the US, where the single purpose Starbucks wallet is outpacing Apple Pay (https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/22/starbuckss-mobile-payment-...), most users pay into the thing with a credit card, so the banks still get their cut. Sure, they aren't getting the cut when it's spent on coffee like they would with a credit card, but in some ways, they already got it on the front end.

Is the bank totally out of the picture in the Ali/Wec version? Do people put cash money into Ali/Wec via top-up shops or other experiences? Direct deposit salary? Or is it a free transfer from a bank?

[cmplxconjugate]

You sign up to the Alipay/Wepay services using a bank card. Money is transferred from the card to the payment account using the transfer credit interface in the app.