Published
Mar 2, 2017
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WeChat Pay launches in North America

Published
Mar 2, 2017

The United States has proven to be one of the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists. In order to capitalize on this popularity, China’s WeChat Pay is making a move stateside, launching in North America for the first time for a partnership with Citcon, a mobile payment program aimed at connecting merchants around the globe with Chinese travelers. 


WeChat Pay in action - South China Morning Post


With the partnership between Citcon and WeChat Pay, millions of business across North America will be able to accept WeChat Pay as a form of payment from Chinese travelers. This would be a huge move for both WeChat and American businesses - China has had the largest outbound tourist rate for four years running. 

Over the course of 2020, Chinese tourists are expected to spend $80 billion in the United States. In 2011, China moved past Japan to take the title of the second-largest tourism market in the world. By 2020, China will grow to three times the size of Japan’s tourism market. The Shanghaiist reports that in 2016, Chinese consumers spent $74 million per day in the United States.

Chuck Huang, founder and CEO of Citcon, told the press in a statement, "WeChat's experience is unrivaled in China. It touches everything in millions of consumers' daily life to introduce a cash-free society. By accepting WeChat Pay through Citcon, merchants are able to tap into the fast-growing mobile payments market and capitalize on the huge market opportunity presented by Chinese consumers."

WeChat, boasting 697 million users internationally, is an all-in-one social app – consumers can talk to their friends, receive voice and video calls, send photos, as well as pay for cabs, for appointments, and pay for airfare among many other things.

WeChat Pay has proved to be a powerhouse in the Asian market – over 90% of fashion labels in China have a presence on the social media app. The majority of consumers in China exclusively use WeChat for their online interactions with friends, as well as with brands. In November of 2015, WeChat Pay had over 200 million users who had signed up their credit cards with the payment platform. TechCrunch estimated WeChat Pay processes at $550 billion per year.

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