Cashless Payment: WeChat Pay v.s. AliPay
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WeChat Pay and Alipay are the two dominant mobile payment players in China. Mobile payment replaced cash or bank card payment about two years ago throughout 1st and 2nd-tier cities in China. It has been accepted widely from breakfast vendors on the street to international unisex casual-wear brands, Uniqlo. WeChat Pay, owned by Tencent, supports transfers on both ways. An individual can also receive money from other contacts or pay for the sharing bike rental fee from OfO (Xiao Huang Che) after scanning the QR code on the bike. According to Tencent, Alipay which is owned by Alibaba Group, lost his dominance in online payment in China since 2017. The introduction of one feature Red Envelope (Hong Bao) by Wechat enables virtual Red Envelope transfers between Wechat contacts for the Chinese New Year. However, WeChat Pay and Alipay are both going strong despite of the fact that Baidu and Sina launched similar features recently. It is now also a good way for the locals to spot non-locals by looking at whether they use mobile payment or by cash.











