KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — Looks like we’ll be getting WeChat’s e-wallet sooner than we think, with Tencent’s ecosystem set to roll out sometime next year.
If you’re not familiar with how an e-wallet works, it basically allows you to perform cashless transactions at stores or online when making payments for goods and services.
Tencent has already been attempting to bring their e-wallet, named WeChat Pay, to Malaysia and now we’re going to be the first foreign country to get the service out of China, with plans to launch the service early next year.
Of course, there’s also Alibaba’s Alipay, which is their number one competitor. Alipay has been on our shores for a while already, but it’s not available to Malaysian users. Instead, it exists only being a possible payment option for tourists visiting from China.
WeChat Pay will also be pretty easy to roll out, as the company once claimed that they have 95 per cent penetration in the Malaysian populace, essentially eliminating the need to hunt for new users.
“Malaysia is actually quite large in the sense that we have 20 million WeChat users, huge potential, and the market is quite warm towards internet products from China,” states senior vice president SY Lau. — SoyaCincau
