Domestic technology giant Tencent Holdings aims to bring its third-party payment tool - WeChat Pay, which is connected to China's popular social media app WeChat - to a wider presence in the global market, especially in the U.S.
The company told the Global Times on Thursday that WeChat Pay is expected to connect more American merchants in the second half of this year.
WeChat Pay entered the U.S. market in 2016, targeted at offering services for Chinese tourists in cross-border payments.
Amid expanding its payment services abroad, Tencent has not yet tried to create local versions of WeChat for other countries.
"Instead, the company has been focused on signing up merchants in many countries to accept WeChat Pay so Chinese tourists can use the payments platform abroad," said a CNBC report on Thursday.
"The first step is, we will choose merchants that Chinese tourists like, some outlets and duty-free stores, some famous restaurants. Maybe as a next step, we will try and find some smaller merchants, like supermarkets, convenience stores, transportation [services] like taxis. We will choose the big merchants Chinese tourists like. Once the service has showcased, we will try to expand it to small merchants," Yin Jie, director of cross-border operations at WeChat Pay, was quoted as saying in the report.
On Wednesday, Tencent announced the launch of its local digital wallet in Malaysia.
Chen Qiru, Tencent's financial technology director, said there are two approaches of Tencent's overseas payment services: cross-border payments to satisfy the demand of domestic travelers abroad and local payment tools offered by obtaining related licenses.
The latter model is being applied in Malaysia and China's Hong Kong where many WeChat app users exist.
So far, WeChat Pay has been connected to more than 40 countries and regions while supporting more than 13 currencies, Chen noted.
