WeChat Pay in Malaysia opens before Hari Raya in June

Whether you are a big store or a street food stall, whether you are strolling the streets of the mainland, you can see QR codes.

Everyone can use their mobile phone to scan a QR code to buy food or goods.The stall owner does not need to be separated to find change.

As two giants in China's electronic payment sector, WeChat Pay and Alipay are expected to launch Malaysian local currency e-wallets in different forms in the first half of 2018, leading industry insiders to be optimistic that electronic payments will change the consumption habits of Malaysians.

Although earlier, it was reported that Tencent will launch the WeChat local currency e-wallet in the first quarter of this year.

However, industry insiders say that WeChat Pay cannot activate local currency wallets during the Lunar New Year period. This prevents Malaysians from experiencing the joy of sending WeChat red packets in Ringgit for the first time in the new year.

Two of China's leading companies, Alibaba and Tencent, often spend a lot of money creating new ways of playing in order to capture the e-payment market.

Since Tencent WeChat launched the "Red Envelope" on the eve of New Year's Day in 2014, although it started 10 years later than Alipay.

It is interesting to note that WeChat has successfully and rapidly emerged on the Chinese social network, because WeChat Pay has launched the "grab red envelopes" function.

2000 million WeChat users

If WeChat Pay can enable the local currency e-wallet function during the Lunar New Year, it will be very helpful for WeChat marketing in Malaysia.

Malaysia boasts over 2000 million WeChat users and enjoys a substantial user base. Therefore, the launch of a local currency e-wallet by WeChat is expected to have a significant impact on the e-commerce industry.

Last year, Tencent announced that WeChat had made a "breakthrough" in its application for an e-payment license in Malaysia . It is expected that WeChat users in Malaysia will be able to conduct WeChat transactions using WeChat Pay in the first quarter of this year.

Nonetheless, industry sources say, as some of the details have not been resolved:

• The WeChat “Ringgit Wallet” is not yet available for Chinese New Year, but it is believed that it may officially launch in May, June or before the Hari Raya holiday.
• Local banks will continue to provide service support for WeChat e-wallets in the future.

1 people experience in advance

Although the outside world is low-key, industry insiders have learned that China's Tencent Holdings Co., Ltd. has deployed the ringgit e-wallet as early as 2 years ago, and selected Malaysian WeChat users to use the beta version of the Malaysian wallet.

Selected Malaysian WeChat users have dual currency wallets that can switch between China and Malaysia.They can use MYR bank card and use RM electronic transaction to experience some WeChat payment functions in advance.

Chen Weiliang has seen some of his friends using the overseas beta version of WeChat in Malaysia.

At first, that friend thought that friends around had dual versions that could switch wallets in different regions.He later found out that he was a "special user".

According to his understanding, only 2000 of the 10000 million WeChat users in Malaysia have this version, but this beta version has limited functionality.

Although the trial version offers dual versions of WeChat, allowing switching between wallets in China and Malaysia, it lacks currency conversion functionality. When he needs to transact in RMB, he still needs to find a cross-border e-commerce platform to help with the exchange.