Tencent messaging app, WeChat, continues to grow rapidly, having added 200m monthly active users (MAU) during 2015. By December 2015, the company had reached 697m MAUs, according to Tencent’s earnings report Q4 2015. That’s a year-on-year rise of 39.4%.
However, Tencent did not disclose exact figures on growth in mainland China versus other areas. The app is among the most popular in China and many of its features are focussed on the Chinese market, including WeChat Pay, the online and in-store payment feature, which allows users to send money to friends as well as pay for merchandise and services.
WeChat grows MAUs to 697m in 2015
Source: techinasia.com
The success of WeChat Pay could total $500bn in money transferred in 2016, according to Reuters calculations. Tencent does pay a bank handling fee of 0.1% on each transaction, totaling $46.1m in January 2016 alone. Up until now, the app didn’t charge users for transferring cash. However, as of March 1 Tencent charges a 0.1% fee to users who exceed the sum of $153.
Michael Yeo, Analyst, IDC, the market researcher, said:
“The transaction fees will encourage users to make fewer withdrawals and thus keep more money circulating within the WeChat Wallet ecosystem, therefore increasing the opportunities for other spending within it.”
WeChat Pay is now a serious competitor to Alibaba’s Alipay, which achieved a payment volume of $519bn in 2013.
