“The development of the Internet must be able to make people’s lives more convenient, facilitate the development of all aspects, and ultimately promote the healthy and orderly development of the internet industry and platform economy,” said Xiao Yaqing, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology at a press conference. In September, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued an ultimatum to internet companies to open up their walled gardens and allow rival links and payment services on their sites or risk regulatory action. In return, Alibaba’s ecommerce platform, Taobao, only accepts its own payment service, Alipay. This includes opening so-called walled gardens that, for years, blocked users from accessing payment services from rival companies.įor instance, ecommerce platform JD.com, which is backed by Tencent, has WeChat Pay as its default payment option. However, WeChat’s dominance in the market has recently come under increased scrutiny.Ĭhinese regulators have made an aggressive push urging big tech companies to terminate monopolistic practices. This has made it a subject of envy for many digital platforms worldwide trying to replicate its “super app” model. These apps sit on Tencent’s server and not on the programmers’ and are therefore usually very fast to access and operate.īecause WeChat essentially functions as a platform for everything, it has become the world’s largest standalone app and an indispensable feature in the daily lives of over 1 billion Chinese users. This in-built feature makes WeChat a so-called “super app” as it has resulted in the introduction of thousands of mini-programs within WeChat across a multitude of industries, from social media to gaming, food delivery, ride-hailing and more. The mini-program or mini-applications feature was first launched in January 2016 and is best described as “apps within the app”, enabling users to access other platforms without downloading their apps separately. In addition, WeChat users can now use QuickPass on several external services, such as JD.com’s ecommerce platform and beverage companies Luckin Coffee and Nayuki’s Tea, which are accessible directly through WeChat’s mini-program. Equally, it gives WeChat Pay users the same option with QuickPass codes.Īccording to the latest development, QuickPass payment is now supported on several Tencent services, including its music and video streaming apps. The cooperation enables QuickPass users to make payments by scanning WeChat Pay’s QR codes. In addition Tencent, WeChat’s parent company, has extended its partnership with Cloud QuickPass – the mobile payment service of state-backed UnionPay – which was first announced in September. On a local level, the Bank of Xi’an, Bank of Hangzhou and Tonglian Pay have also joined the list. The partners mentioned include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Ping An Bank and CITIC. The news comes as regulators have urged private financial service providers in China to open up their platforms or face penalties.Īccording to Chinese media, WeChat will work together with several central-bank-backed financial institutions to promote a more open payment ecosystem. The real purpose of the new digital currency.One of China’s biggest mobile payment platforms, WeChat Pay, is apparently cooperating with several national financial institutions to further promote openness and interoperability among the digital payment industry. To challenge the long-standing global reign of the US dollar. The new digital currency is part of the CCP's ambition, as laid out in its new Five-Year Plan for the years 2021-2025, to digitalize China. The digitalization, in turn, is part of China's ambition to become technologically independent of the West and to dominate global tech, and overtake the US as the world's dominant power by 2049," the 100 th anniversary of China's Communist Revolution.Ĭrucially, China's new digital currency, in addition to increasing state control and surveillance in uld affect the ability of the US, and other countries, to level sanctions at the Chinese government for its human rights abuses and other breaches of international law. The US, on its part, does not appear ready for China's challenge over the future of money. "Not only are the American monetary authorities underestimating the threat posed to dollar dominance by China's pioneering combination of digital currency and electronic payments. They are also treating the blockchain-based financial innovations that offer the best alternative to China's e-yuan like gatecrashers at their own exclusive party." - Niall Ferguson, historian, Bloomberg, April 4, 2021.Ĭommunist China is adding another element to its toolbox of surveilling and controlling its population.
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