ByteDance, which is known as the owner company of Tiktok, launched a third-party digital payment service for Douyin. This service adds competition to e-payments on platforms that previously used Alipay and WeChat Pay.
According to a number of media in China, Douyin Pay has officially launched in that country. The Chinese version of Tiktok’s platform stated that digital payments are to complete payment options for users.
“The Douyin Pay arrangement is to complement the payment options, and to improve the user experience in Douyin,” said Douyin, quoted by Reuters, Wednesday (20/1/2021).
The payment service on Douyin is used to purchase a number of items on the platform. Such as virtual gifts for livestreams or items from the shop there.
The payment service from Douyin was built by Bytedance founder and chief executive, Zhang Yiming, by acquiring Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology Co last year. The company is known to have secured a third-party payment license from the local central bank in 2014.
As information, Douyin currently has 600 million daily users. The platform is also Bytedance’s main cash machine.
With this digital payment service, Tiktok can describe it later. Especially after Douyin has been selling merchandise since 2017 and now operates e-commerce, where hundreds of millions of people shop every day.
ByteDance’s expansion into payment services is also due to Chinese regulators starting to tighten supervision on fintech companies, especially giant companies such as Ant Group.
Previously, Ant Group’s third-party digital payment services were controlled by Tencent Holdings’ Alipay and WeChat Pay. According to market analysts, they currently dominate 55.39 percent of the total market in China.
Meanwhile, China also has other payment services such as JD Pay from JD.com, Baidu Wallet and Meituan Pay.
