Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay, one of China’s dominant digital payment platforms, saw a jump in transactions during the ‘golden week’ national holiday as consumer spending shows signs of recovery after Beijing imposed its largest stimulus package since the pandemic.
Known on the mainland as Weixin Pay, the digital wallet recorded a 20 percent increase in transaction numbers during the weeklong hiatus, which ended on Monday, according to the company.
Tourism-related transactions nearly doubled from the week before the holiday, with cross-border payment volume growing by more than 70 percent, WeChat Pay said. In Hong Kong and Macau, cross-border transactions more than doubled from the previous week, indicating that these cities were particularly popular among mainland tourists.
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Consumers in China appear to have taken control after Beijing announced this late last month a whole series of tough measures to stimulate the economy, including mortgage rate cuts and tools to support the stock market. Many people spent the holidays abroad as sentiment improved.
Tourists walk past a replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel resort in Macau. Photo: AFP alt=Tourists walk past a replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Parisian hotel resort in Macau. Photo: AFP>
This is reported by Alipay, the other major mobile payment service in China a 60 percent increase in the number of transactions year-on-year in overseas markets. Ant Group, which operates Alipay, is a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.
According to Alibaba’s travel booking platform Fliggy, the number of outbound travel bookings has grown substantially and interest in long-haul and niche destinations has also increased.
Still, many Chinese tourists chose to stay in their home country.
During the golden week holiday, local tourists made 765 million domestic trips, up 5.9 percent from the same period last year and up 10.2 percent from 2019, according to estimates released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Tuesday released.
Domestic travel spending rose 6.3 percent from a year ago to 700.8 billion yuan ($99.3 billion), up 7.9 percent from 2019, the data showed.
The increase in digital payment traffic also comes after WeChat Pay expanded its service to Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall. The two online marketplaces, the largest in China, started accepting Tencent’s payment services for online purchases in early September.
The groundbreaking partnership agreement was part of a major effort to break down the digital walls between the ecosystems of the country’s largest technology companies. a call from the Chinese government to increase interoperability.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Mail (SCMP)the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please visit the SCMP App or visit the SCMPs Facebook And Tweet pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.