In China, people can use WeChat Pay, a mobile payment service from Tencent Holdings Ltd., Owner of the popular messaging app WeChat with over 1.25 billion monthly active users.
Now the use of WeChat Pay is being expanded further. Tencent announced Thursday that WeChat Pay will be accessible through Cloud QuickPass, the mobile payment service from government-backed UnionPay.
UnionPay is the world’s largest card network with more than 9 billion cards issued. It is widely used by both Chinese buyers internationally and domestically. UnionPay’s QuickPass is accepted at 25 million POS terminals, including more than 7 million POS terminals in 82 countries and regions outside of mainland China.
The collaboration allows QuickPass users to make payments by scanning WeChat Pay QR codes offline, and WeChat Pay users can do the same with QuickPass codes in provincial capitals across the country.
The QuickPass payment now supports some Tencent services, such as its music and video streaming apps, as well as WeChat mini-programs for WeChat Read, JD.com and Luckin Coffee, Tencent said.
WeChat Pay previously connected to a number of banks’ mobile banking apps, including China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Ping An Bank, and Citic Bank.
Caixin learned that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. also tests collaboration with QuickPass by allowing users to scan each other’s QR codes.
However, industry experts said that QR code scanning and recognition of each other is not a real link between different payment services as each service still uses its own QR code system.
QR code is a machine-readable code that is typically used to store URLs or other information for the camera to read on a smartphone. The QR code system enables shoppers to make quick payments by scanning a code provided by merchants or by asking the company to scan a code generated by a mobile payment app.
There is currently no uniform technical standard for QR code payment connections in China. Payment providers issue various barcodes that can only be used for their own services.
In August 2019, the central bank issued a Three year plan create a legal framework to unify technology standards and promote the interoperability of the QR code payment service. The plan is that by the end of 2021, all merchants will be able to use a universal barcode to facilitate transactions through various payment service providers, including banks, Alipay and WeChat Pay.
The central bank will urge internet companies to open up their payment scenarios to one another in order to guarantee consumer choice, Central Bank Governor Yi Gang said recently.
The antitrust measures in the payments sector must be deepened despite “interim progress” last year, said the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, Fan Yifei, at the China Payment and Clearing Forum in Beijing last Friday.
Alibaba recently added the competing WeChat pay system to some of its post-government apps ordered big tech companies to stop blocking each other’s services and links.
Services such as the food delivery app Ele.me, the online ticketing platform Damai, the e-book reader Shuqi and Kaola, a site for imported goods, now offer WeChat Pay in addition to Alipay.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com)
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