Chinese tech giant Tencent will soon allow visitors to China to pay with international credit or debit cards such as Visa via WeChat Pay from mid July.
With the launch of this initiative, foreign tourists travelling in China will be able to pay with the WeChat app, revealed Royal Chen, vice president of Tencent Financial Technology, which owns WeChat, at the recent World Economic Forum.
Chen said the company's efforts to further open payment services to visitors coincide with the full resumption of travel and tourism to China, as well as major upcoming international events in the country scheduled this year.
"Tencent has been working hard to provide greater access to China’s online and offline merchants for overseas visitors under the support of relevant regulatory bodies and policies," he added.
In a similar move, Mastercard last month announced that cardholders can link credit or debit cards to the Alipay digital wallet, opening up a new payment option for international visitors to China.
Once the overseas credit or debit card is connected to WeChat or Alipay, visitors will have access to a wide range of merchants and services from shopping and dining to hotel accommodations and transportation in China’s cashless society.
In recent years, overseas visitors to China have met with growing challenges paying for goods and services as many shops and restaurants only accept mobile payment instead of credit cards or cash.
Foreigners typically needed to set up a Chinese bank account in order to access China’s mobile payment networks. As a result, China’s mobile payment network became highly closed-off to overseas tourists since mobile apps became the predominant payment method in the country.