WeChat, one of the Chinas most popular payment services, will start supporting the Chinese government’s digital currency.
Tencent announced that it will begin accepting digital yuan payments via its proprietary mobile wallet WeChat Pay. China has been developing a digital yuan since 2014, and it has yet to be implemented nationwide. If people start paying for goods and services with WeChat, which has more than 1 billion users, it will give it a significant boost.
WeChat’s vast user base and multitude of wrapped services have earned it the moniker of a “mega-app.” Users can use WeChat Pay to chat, pay bills, and order food or transportation. There are over 800 million monthly active users on WeChat Pay.
The People’s Bank of China has conducted limited tests of the digital yuan in several cities involving small quantities of the currency in commercial and consumer environments. Despite the fact that there is no timetable for a nationwide rollout, there are indications that the PBoC is interested in expanding usage of the digital currency.
