Here to show us what the third-party payment sector looks like in China right now.

The growing market has prompted many big businesses to want to get a share. But currently there are just 267 companies with official licences to do third-party payments.

The authority had announced that they do not intend to approve more companies in the short term. That means that the only way for companies to get into the business is to acquire the licensed companies.

Since 2012, there have been more than 30 mergers and acquisitions involving third-party payment companies. The pace is picking up. More than 20 of those M&As happened in 2015.

Some notable cases this year. Meituan-Dianping acquired qiandai.com for an undisclosed amount. Xinli Finance acquired Haike Rongtong for 2.4 billion yuan, and Keybridge Communications bought a 45 percent share of Shanghai-based JF Pal.