WeChat ran a trial of WeChat offline payment in July. According to Abacus, the trial enabled passengers of two Spring Airlines flights to make offline payments while flying. The flight was between Shanghai and Chengdu.
On the trial, passengers needed to sign up to WeChat on the Machine. Then before boarding and successful applicants got the ability to use the WeChat mobile app. With the offline payment, passenger can purchase food and beverages, souvenirs, and blankets. Besides, they can also purchase another in-flight service.
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Their bills stored on the app until the airplane landed. Once their device got internet connection payments were automatically made. The company mentioned that the new service will be available for WeChat users with scores above 550 in its commercial social credit program.
WeChat’s new offline payment is the door to many opportunities. Later on, the tech giant can provide this offline opportunity for their customer daily life.
WeChat Rival
WeChat’s rival, Alipay, has also been expanding offline. In October 2018, Alipay demonstrated its new EasyGo service. The demonstration was at Hong Kong’s Smart Mobility Technology. EasyGo service is a QR code-based payment system. It uses for public transit that process transaction offline.
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Moreover, the service supports ‘dual offline’ payment functionality. Thus, it allows payments even if the network quality is poor.
Up to this day, Alipay dominated the market with a 53.8% market share. Tencent’s Tenpay, came in second at 38.9%. Tencent’s pay includes WeChat Pay and QQ Wallet. The two tech giants combined market share of 92.7%, according to the report.
Mobile payment is a big thing in China. Cited from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), there are 583 million people used mobile payment in 2018. The number is up 10.7% from the year prior.
From the same report, in the fourth quarter of 2018, China’s third-party mobile payment market reached US$7.01 trillion. The number increase by 7.8% quarter-on-quarter.
