Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, announces an expansion of its global partnership with Tencent, making Weixin Pay—also known as WeChat Pay—available on Stripe Terminal in 20 countries.
From Australia and Canada to France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, the UK, the US and beyond, businesses powered by Stripe can seamlessly accept Weixin Pay online and now, in-person with Stripe Terminal.
This partnership, which began in 2017, broadens the collaboration with Tencent to bring a unified commerce experience for merchants and their customers alike. By centralizing payment data from all sales channels in one dashboard, Stripe’s Terminal provides businesses with a comprehensive view of payments data across online and in-person channels. Businesses can use this information to improve customer experiences and increase revenue. The Weixin Pay integration on Stripe Terminal will be supported by the latest Stripe Reader devices, including the Stripe Reader S700.
The Chinese consumer market extends to the global Chinese diaspora living, working, and studying outside China—representing more than 50 million people. An earlier analysis of hundreds of Stripe’s users around the world shows that just by adding Chinese payment methods like Weixin Pay, many have seen their revenues from overseas Chinese consumers double. This number is now set to grow with the in-person solution available with Stripe Terminal.
Launched in 2013, Weixin Pay is the CNY-denominated digital wallet inside Tencent’s leading lifestyle all-in-one app Weixin. Weixin is available to over 1.3 billion monthly active users, which provides a central point of access for Weixin users to create and share content as well as for merchants to engage with and grow their community through Weixin Pay, Channels, Moments, Official Accounts and Mini Programs. Consumers can make retail purchases, person-to-person money transfers, travel and transport bookings, online education payments, and a host of other transactions through Weixin Pay. With Weixin Pay integrated on Stripe, merchants can enable a faster and more secure way for customers to pay online and in-person with a saved payment method or stored balance, cut down on fraud claims and chargebacks with two-factor authentication.
Additionally, merchants can leverage the Global Gift Pack Mini Program offered by Weixin Pay. This Mini Program enables brands to forge deeper connections with their target audience within Weixin’s ecosystem. Participating merchants will benefit from heightened visibility and engagement among overseas Chinese consumers through this official offering.
“Working with Stripe to expand our international reach and strengthen our unified commerce efforts is a natural next step in our journey,” said Monica Zheng, Managing Director of Weixin Pay Oceania. “Stripe’s global network and payment infrastructure makes it easy for businesses to accept payments from customers using Weixin Pay quickly and safely—wherever they are in the world.”
Torrens University Australia, one of the leading universities in the country, uses Stripe for international payments and fraud protection. They enabled Weixin Pay to make it easier to accept tuition fees and related payments from overseas Chinese students. Similarly, HungryPanda, the global leader in Asian food delivery, successfully widened its reach to more Chinese customers in the UK by adding Weixin Pay into their Stripe setup.
“Today’s announcement marks a significant step forward in the strategic partnership between Stripe and Tencent,” said Paul Harapin, Chief Revenue Officer, Asia Pacific, at Stripe. “We’re thrilled that our longstanding partnership with Tencent continues to make it easier than ever for global businesses to reach overseas Chinese consumers.”
Stripe is working to expand Weixin Pay’s reach to more countries and plans to introduce recurring payments for eligible merchants as an add-on feature soon.