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WeChat Pay Brings a New Style of Celebrating Chinese New Year Overseas


GUANGZHOU, China, Feb. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Since WeChat Red Packet were launched in 2014, WeChat has transformed the celebration of Chinese Lunar New Year in many ways. With the fast development of cross-border payments, the WeChat lifestyle has become increasingly popular overseas as more Chinese people travel abroad to spend their New Year holiday.

From Feb.15 to Feb.20, more than 768 million people participated in receiving and sending red packets, an increase of 10% from the same period last year, according to a statement released by WeChat on Feb. 21.

Users from provinces of Guangdong, Shandong and Jiangsu led the country in being the most skilled users at grabbing the largest number of red packets. The most generous user this year was a man from Chongqing city, who sent out 2,723 red packets in just six days. A man from Nanchang, Jiangxi province, was one of the happiest people during the Chinese New Year as he received a total of 3,429 red packets.

Traveling overseas to celebrate the Chinese New Year is undoubtedly becoming a habit for many Chinese people. Hong Kong became the first shopping destination of choice for Chinese outbound tourists, with Thailand ranked second place and Japan in the third place. Consumers from the post-1990s generation were the largest portion in terms of overseas spending, according to WeChat.

WeChat Pay has launched a series of promotions in cooperation with internationally renowned merchants in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Chinese tourists were given an opportunity to receive red packets via WeChat Pay while they shopped overseas during the holiday, allowing them to experience a little piece of the traditional Chinese festival atmosphere while they are away from home.

The cross-border payment solution offered by WeChat Pay allows Chinese outbound tourists to make the payment to the merchants in Chinese yuan, while enabling the merchants to receive the payment in their local currency, saving them the trouble of exchanging currencies and saddling the shopper with a small-denomination banknotes and coins in an unfamiliar currency.

With the roll-out of the promotions, WeChat Pay will help merchants across the world draw Chinese travelers into their shops and serve as a link to its 800 million users.

"WeChat Pay plans to constantly invest in its cross-border business, with the aim of duplicating the domestic WeChat lifestyle overseas," said Grace Yin, WeChat Pay Director for Overseas Operation.

Through serving Chinese outbound tourists, WeChat Pay has established partnerships with an ever-growing number of overseas merchants with the ability to handle transactions in 13 different currencies in 25 countries and regions.

"When traveling abroad mainland Chinese are increasingly on the lookout for places that accept WeChat Pay. It's a sign that Chinese are welcome and it's a preferred payment option of ease for Chinese consumers," said Matthew Brennan, tech analyst and founder of China Channel (ChCh).

In domestic market during the New Year holiday season, users spend most in retail sector, restaurant and traveling, according to WeChat.

During the six-day holiday period, a total of 229.7 billion messages were sent on WeChat and 2.8 billion posts were sent in WeChat Moments. The use of video calls and audio calls reached 17.5 billion minutes.

Playing mini games, WeChat mini-programs used for gaming purpose, or doing exercise are also very popular during the holiday. During the holiday, the highest number of simultaneous online users for mini games reached 28 million per hour. WeChat users in total walked 6.43 trillion steps during the holiday.

Follow the official Facebook page for more WeChat information

https://www.facebook.com/WeChatPayTeam/

 

SOURCE WeChat


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