UPDATED 19:32 EDT / NOVEMBER 10 2019

APPS

In possible sign of global expansion, Alipay and WeChat Pay add foreign card support

China’s two largest mobile payment providers, Alipay and WeChat Pay, have announced support for western cards, opening up both services to visitors to the Middle Kingdom in a possible sign of further global expansion.

In China, mobile payments have become ubiquitous with AliPay and WeChat Pay, respectively holding a 54% and 39% share of the market in China. As of the end of 2018, 83% of all transactions in China were mobile, possibly higher again today. While those in the west talk up paying for coffee in Starbucks using a service like Apple Pay, China is on a completely different planet: Everybody accepts mobile payments, even buskers in remote towns in Sichuan (pictured).

wechatThe problem for visitors to China, at least until now, is that using Alipay or WeChat Pay required a Chinese bank account. Although cash is still accepted in most places, there is a move against accepting cash in the country with certain purchases — ticket vending machines in particular but also some online services and bike-sharing services that only accept mobile payments. Acceptance of western cards from Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. is scarce.

Alipay was the first to jump earlier in the week, unveiling on Nov. 5 a 90-day “tour pass” program for short-term visitors to be able to pay for some purchases using the service. The South China Morning Post reported last week that the service will allow visitors to use an international version of their app by purchasing a virtual prepaid card from the Bank of Shanghai using their existing Visa, Mastercard, JCB or Diners Club cards.

WeChat Pay one-upped Alipay Nov. 7 through a partnership with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Global Network and JCB that provides direct support for payments, without the need to purchase a virtual card.

“This partnership means that we’ll be working towards an environment where Visa cardholders will be able to use their Visa card in China at the millions of places where WeChat Pay is accepted, instead of having to rely on cash,” Visa said in a statement referencing the WeChat Pay deal.

The news may not mean much to those who have no plans of visiting China as yet, but both companies have been pushing international expansion. AliPay has been pushing heavily into Europe and other parts of Asia, primarily to serve the ever growing numbers of mainland Chinese traveling abroad. But as Quartz noted in March, the key question is whether the company will pursue Western consumers as well. WeChat Pay is pursuing a similar global expansion.

With both building point of sales networks across dozens of countries, a push into providing mobile payment services for locals outside of China is the next logical step for both.

Photos: Duncan Riley

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU