GUANGZHOU, China, Feb. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WeChat Pay, the mobile payment unit of China's most popular social app, WeChat, has launched a series of promotions in cooperation with internationally renowned merchants in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. Chinese tourists will be given an opportunity to receive a red packet, a traditional monetary gift which is given during important holidays in China and other East Asian societies, via WeChat Pay when they shop at participating merchants during the holiday, allowing them to experience the cheerful atmosphere of the traditional Chinese festival while they are travelling abroad. The cross-border payment solution offered by WeChat Pay allows Chinese outbound tourists to make the payment to the merchants in Chinese yuan, while enabling the merchants to receive the payment in local currency, saving them the trouble of exchanging currencies and saddling the shopper with a small-denomination banknotes and coins in an unfamiliar currency. With the roll-out of the promotions, WeChat Pay will help international merchants draw Chinese travelers into their shops and serve as a link between its 800 million users and the merchants.
WeChat Pay expands into international markets
According to the Outbound Travel Trends Report for the 2018 Spring Festival issued by the Chinese Tourism Academy, the number of Chinese outbound tourists is expected to reach a record 6.5 million during this year's holiday. With more and more Chinese travelling abroad, WeChat has continued to expand its footprint globally by partnering with an increasing number of international merchants, allowing them to focus on enhancing the quality of services without the hassle of dealing with the handling and exchange of Chinese banknotes into local currency.
WeChat Pay's promotions for the 2018 Spring Festival covers Australia, the US, a number of countries across Europe, as well as several countries and regions in Asia (Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore). WeChat users who are traveling in any of these countries or regions during the Spring Festival can receive a red packet by scanning the QR code at any of the participating merchants when they shop there and be entitled to a coupon worth 50 yuan (approx. US$7.5) once their spending reaches 500 yuan (approx. US$75), in addition to receiving random discounts. The red packet offering gives WeChat Pay users an opportunity to enjoy China's most important annual holiday even when they are far away from home.
From smart payment to smart lifestyle, WeChat Pay's smart lifestyle concept benefits global users
WeChat Pay, with increasing investment in expansion into international markets over the past few years, has brought its sophisticated payment solution to Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan, in addition to other countries and regions around the globe while increasing support for international merchants in multiple ways.
WeChat is a popular Chinese social app with 980 million active users monthly, of which over 800 million are also WeChat Pay users. Backed by the massive user base, the smart living concept advocated by WeChat Pay has become one of the links through which the rest of the world interacts with and develops an understanding of China. Currently, WeChat Pay's cross-border business supports operation across 25 countries and regions worldwide as well as the ability to handle transactions in 13 different currencies.
The WeChat Pay team explained that WeChat Pay plans to constantly invest in its cross-border business and enhance its competence in serving business customers, with the aim of delivering a more convenient mobile payment-driven smart living experience to global users by establishing partnerships with an ever-growing number of international merchants.