WECHAT PAY BANKS ON 20M LOCAL USERS
Malaysia ideal for expansion beyond Greater China, says CEO
WECHAT Malaysia Sdn Bhd sees growth for WeChat Pay on the back of its 20 million locally-registered WeChat users.
WeChat Pay Malaysia chief executive officer Jason Siew said this would be possible as more Malaysians were now tech-savvy and also due to Bank Negara Malaysia’s policies on digital banking.
“Malaysia has one of the highest social media penetration rates in the world with 25 million users. The country has a high percentage of Internet users who pay for goods or services with their handphones.
“This makes Malaysia an ideal destination to expand into beyond Greater China,” he said in an interview recently.
WeChat Pay is available in China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
When asked if the Malaysian market would be used as a gateway to the rest of Asean, Siew said the firm would like to focus on Malaysia’s competitive digital payment space.
“WeChat is an ecosystem where social interaction is the key, and
payment is part of the interaction. We will roll out more features and add more vendors.
“Some 3,500 vendors in Malaysia accept WeChat Pay and this is expected to increase. When we partner with an entity, it is just not them that we are partnering but also their clients.”
Siew is also looking beyond well-known brands.
“We will soon be rolling out an online ordering service for mamak restaurants in the Klang Valley that will enable users to order their food through WeChat Pay.”
WeChat is one of the largest social communication platforms owned by China-based Tencent Holdings Ltd.
As of December 31 last year, WeChat had some 1.1 billion monthly active user accounts (MAUs), while WeChat Pay had more than 800 million MAUs in the first half of last year.