An illustration of Weixin Pay on a phone. [Photo/VCG]
Tencent said on Wednesday that United States users of PayPal will be able to pay at tens of millions of Weixin Pay merchants across China by scanning QR codes, marking one of the most extensive integrations yet between China's mobile payment ecosystem and foreign digital wallets.
The integration between Tencent's cross-border platform TenPay and US fintech firm PayPal marks one of the first large-scale international applications of China's unified cross-border QR code gateway system.
Under the partnership, US PayPal users visiting China will be able to pay directly at Weixin Pay merchants nationwide using familiar PayPal wallet accounts, without opening Chinese bank accounts. The service will initially launch for US PayPal users before expanding to other markets in phases, Tencent said.
The partnership will run through China's unified cross-border QR code gateway — a payment infrastructure system designed to standardize links between domestic and overseas wallets.
