WeChat Wallet is a digital wallet service that enables consumers to make a payment without paying real cash, zdnet.com reports. In a partnership with Standard Bank in South Africa, the service -- which links debit or credit cards to the WeChat Wallet, allows WeChat users to send cash to each other, make P2P transfers, and pay for services such as airtime, data, electricity, and food.
Consumers can also pay bills through scanning QR codes at retailers supporting the SnapScan mobile payments platform. With the number of active WeChat users exceeding 650 million globally, Tencent is speeding up its expansion of payment services in overseas countries on the backdrop of Alibabas promotion of Alipay Wallet services in other Asian countries, as well as the anticipation of Apple Pay soon settling in China.
Despite this, Tencent chose South Africa for its WeChat Wallet overseas debut; multinational media group Naspers, which owns a stake in Tencent, is the biggest media group in the country, and mobile payment service is also very popular in Africa, according to the Sohu report. Apart from boosting WeChat Wallets presence in an overseas local market, Tencent has also lifted support for Chinese WeChat users making payment in foreign countries.
In November, 2015, Tencent announced WeChat mobile payment system is now available in stores in more than 20 countries, a move to tap fast-growing numbers Chinese outbound tourists. WeChat Wallet now supports transactions in nine currencies, including EUR, USD and GBP. Dozens of companies including Taiwans Hua Nan Bank and Australias RoyalPay Treadwell Partner are all partnering with Tencent to offer the service across Southeast Asia, West Asia, Europe, America, and Australia.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now