In China, Kapronasia estimates that Alipay from Alibaba accounts for 75% of the mobile payment market and 57% of internet payments. Tencent is not content to be second or third, against the other player – Baidu, and plans to use its WeChat platform to make its mark. But Tencent is taking the fight to overseas with the announcement in November 2015 of plans to make WeChat payments available in more international locations. At present its available in more than 20 countries. “This looks like a real blow to Tencent’s competitor Alibaba, which has been trying to expand its payment services to the Western world for a while without much success (the reasons behind could be various: PayPal already dominating the market, legal barriers no relationship with the likes of Visa, MasterCard and so on) and also as a surprise, giving CUP struggles,” said Zennon Kapron (photo right), managing director, Kapronasia. The initial target for WeChat will be the large number of Chinese nationals living or traveling abroad. Already in China, WeChat payments are accepted in big franchises like McDonald’s and Starbucks. Kapron says that while it is easy to expect that in the beginning only Chinese people will use this way of paying, it has a real shot at becoming a must-have for Americans and Europeans too, as a Western counterpart is currently lacking. “While future developments are still ambiguous, it is certain how today, with this operation, Tencent is definitely trying to pass its most important competitor Alibaba in foreign markets, to elude its dominance of the domestic one, and also to go past what UnionPay itself could not manage: establishing the made-in-China in one of those markets still completely owned by the West,” Kapron adds.
Chinese mobile payment service provider , Tencent , is planning to expand its WeChat payment service internationally , to the 20 countries where it already operates . The move reportedly puts Tencent ahead of its key competitor , Alibaba , and its mobile offering . It is reported to have attempted , and largely failed , in its attempts to expand its mobile payment service beyond China , whereas the initial success of WeChat indicates that " it has a real shot at becoming a must - have for Americans and Europeans too " .