Chinese Internet giant Tencent announced Friday it will completely open the mobile payment service offered on its social messaging app WeChat to overseas transactions.
The service will make it easier to buy items from foreign shops as Chinese buyers can pay in RMB, and the payment system will automatically settle with retailers in the local currency, Tencent said.
The system will support settlement in British pound, Hong Kong dollar, U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Euro, New Zealand dollar and Korean won. The company also promised more payment options. Currently, payment can only be completed after retailers scan a QR code generated by the app installed in consumers' cell phones.
The service will cover more than 20 countries and regions with dozens of financial institutions, such as Hua Nan Bank and RoyalPay Treadwell Partner, joining the payment system, Tencent said.
The most popular mobile instant messaging app in China, WeChat now boasts 650 million active users per month with 60 percent of them having opened the payment service.
The move marked the latest effort from the company to secure a larger share in the cross-border payment market and the service will also open China's enormous O2O market wider to overseas companies.
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