Tencent’s WeChat, which is the leading messaging app in China, has rolled out a digital payment platform in Malaysia in what is its first Asian market outside of China and Hong Kong.
According to a report in Financial Times, WeChat users in Malaysia can transfer money between friends and family and make payments to offline merchants in the country’s currency. The report noted that the expansion of the payment platform into Malaysia implies that the company is building a local payment service instead of expanding overseas by enabling Chinese customers to pay when traveling abroad.
“Malaysia is a vibrant market. Technology-savvy Malaysians are embracing a digital lifestyle, and to meet this shift, the payment experience has to evolve. Bringing WeChat Pay to Malaysia is our response to this,” S.Y. Lau, senior vice president at Tencent, told Reuters back in November when it landed a Malaysian ePayment license, noted Financial Times.
Source : pymnts.com