WeChat, Tencent’s messaging app has launched its digital payments platform in Malaysia, its first market in Asia beyond China and Hong Kong. WeChat kicked off a one-week campaign to attract Malaysian users onto its digital wallet with free money.
Between August 21 and 28, WeChat’s localized wallet for Malaysia is rewarding users with virtual money packets worth between US$0.95 and US$21.70. Malaysia’s WeChat users will be able to transfer money among themselves and make payments to offline merchants in ringgit.
It also offers a range of everyday functions – such as mobile phone top-ups, and bus and plane ticket booking – although the depth of services is still limited compared to those available in China.
Malaysia’s central bank has been implementing policies promoting electronic payments in a bid to boost a network that lags behind other south-east Asian markets. That has triggered the launch of digital wallets by other strong players, including Grab, the south-east Asia ride-hailing company.
“Malaysia is a vibrant market. Technology-savvy Malaysians are embracing a digital lifestyle and to meet this shift, the payment experience has to evolve. Bringing WeChat Pay to Malaysia is our response to this,” said WeChat Pay Malaysia as quoted in ft.com.
The potential for mobile payments is vast in Malaysia, where cash is still king but the number of mobile phones, mostly smartphones, outstrips a population of 32.1m by more than 10m, according to the central bank.
But collaborations with local banks, of which WeChat has none, will be just as important for WeChat Pay to flourish there. At home, it took Tencent and Ant Financial, Alibaba’s electronic payments affiliate, years to build the links with hundreds of Chinese banks that make their services possible.
source: ft.com, techinasia.com