China’s digital yuan is backup to AliPay and WeChat Pay, says official
Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay reportedly account for 98% of the mobile payment market in China. China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, will provide backup for major retail payment services like AliPay and WeChat Pay as its key objective, according to an official at the People’s Bank of China.Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency research institute, claimed that China’s digital yuan is needed to ensure financial stability in case “something happens” to AliPay or WeChat Pay, the South China Morning Post reports.Speaking at an online panel....
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Leading Chinese banks are promoting the digital yuan over Alipay and WeChat Pay for an upcoming shopping festival in China. Some of China’s largest state banks are actively promoting the digital yuan as a superior means of payment to the country’s two leading payment providers, Alipay and WeChat Pay.In an April 26 report, Reuters revealed that six of China’s largest banks are promoting China’s nascent central bank-issued digital currency, or CBDC, in Shanghai ahead of an online shopping festival on May 5.The banks are urging retail outlets and consumers to download the digital wallet and....
Details regarding the digital yuan's characteristics are taking shape. The forthcoming digital yuan will reportedly be compatible with major payment networks within the country. Mu Changchun, the head of the People's Bank of China's digital currency research institute, said that the central bank-backed digital yuan will be compatible with major mobile payment wallets like WeChat Pay and Alipay.According to a report from South China Morning Post, Mu said during a conference that the digital yuan will not compete with WeChat Pay and Alipay:“They don’t belong to the same dimension. WeChat and....
While WeChat isn't as popular outside of China as WhatsApp, it is ubiquitous on the mainland. WeChat, China's largest messaging app and one of the country's most popular payment services, will start supporting the Chinese government's digital currency.On Jan. 6, 2021, Tencent announced that it will begin accepting digital yuan payments via its proprietary mobile wallet WeChat Pay, according to a local news report. China has been developing a digital yuan since 2014, and it has yet to be implemented nationwide. If people start paying for goods and services with WeChat, which has more than 1....
Starbucks and McDonald’s are reportedly not part of the 3,000 merchants piloting China’s CBDC. American fast-food giants like Starbucks and McDonald’s are reportedly not participating in China’s ongoing digital yuan tests.According to an Oct. 14 report by news agency Sina Finance, China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, is still being piloted on a “small scale,” primarily involving the retail and catering industry.As reported, a number of foreign merchants, which were rumored to be part of China’s CBDC tests, are actually not using the digital yuan for payment so far.Xiong’an, one....
Ant’s suspended IPO exposes potential financial risks posed by the fintech giant’s digital payment platform Alipay. The digital yuan may be China’s attempt at a solution.