Tencent's WeChat Pay will start giving its 600 million users a credit rating, using an AI-based system to determine people's "trust" value, according to local press reports.
WeChat Pay has been using the data it collects on users for internal purposes for some time but it is now launching an external credit scoring product that can be tapped by others.
According to Asia Times, WeChat Pay users, as well as online gamers, will be assigned "payment points" that are calculated by an AI-based system that looks at various online habits as well as more traditional data points such as credit records.
The more payment points a person has, the higher the "trust" value they are assigned. Tencent, then determines whether a user is "trustworthy" or not.
The move into credit scoring has been long trailed; in 2018, Tencent began a nationwide test of a system only to call it off the next day, claiming more improvements were needed.
Tencent's great rival, Alibaba, launched its Sesame Credit system in 2015, using online behaviour, including shopping habits and interpersonal relationships, to judge the creditworthiness of millions of consumers and small businesses.