WeChat, China’s largest messaging app and one of the country’s most popular payment services, will start supporting the Chinese government’s digital currency.
On January 6, 2021, Tencent announced that it will begin accepting digital payments in yuan through its proprietary mobile wallet WeChat Pay, according to a local news report. China has been developing a digital yuan since 2014 and it has yet to be rolled out across the country. If people start paying for goods and services with WeChat, which has more than 1 billion users, it will give you a significant boost.
WeChat’s huge user base and multitude of packaged services have earned it the nickname “mega app.” Users can use WeChat Pay to chat, pay bills, and order food or transportation. There are more than 800 million monthly active users on WeChat Pay.
Linghao Bao, an analyst at consultancy Trivium China, told CNBC: “Chinese consumers are so caught up in WeChat Pay and Alipay that it is unrealistic to convince them to switch to a new mobile payment app. So it makes sense for the central bank to partner with WeChat Pay and Alipay rather than alone. “
Up to now, The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has conducted limited tests of the digital yuan in several cities involving small amounts of the currency in commercial and consumer settings.. Even though there is no timetable for a nationwide launch, there are indications that the PBoC is interested in expanding the use of the digital currency.
China has established a significant advantage in developing a central bank digital currency for public use, outperforming most of the countries that are still in their respective research phases. Earlier this week, the country’s central bank launched a pilot version of a yuan digital wallet app on Chinese iOS and Android stores.
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