Tencent’s WeChat, China’s most popular social media app, has launched its digital payments platform in Malaysia, its first market in Asia beyond China and Hong Kong.
Malaysia’s WeChat users will be able to transfer money among themselves and make payments to offline merchants in ringgit. This suggests Tencent is building a local payments service, rather than taking the more common route of overseas expansion used by Chinese mobile-app providers that caters to Chinese tourists or nationals living abroad.
Malaysia’s central bank has been implementing policies promoting electronic payments in a bid to boost a network that lags behind other south-east Asian markets. That has triggered the launch of digital wallets by other companies, including Grab, the south-east Asia ride-hailing company.