Messenger Apps Turning to Payments

The story of China’s WeChat is being replicated across the world.
There are many ways in which the world is divided up. Borders, differing cultures and even vast masses of water serve to partition the globe. Preference per region for Messenger apps is one of the less initially visible ways this is done.
Although much of the world uses a combination of Facebook messenger and WhatsApp as their primary communication method, the Asian region is much more fragmented. Line dominates the regions of Japan, Taiwan and Thailand whilst Kakao is the king in the South Korean Peninsula. Despite only claiming the one country of China, WeChat’s sizeable user base is something that it has actively tapped into. All of the above-mentioned apps have made steps to monetise by making the shift from social messenger apps to payment apps. In other words, they are using their existing audience to dip their toes in the territory of fintech and digital banking in doing so altering our views on finance.
However, no other messaging app has managed to do this more than WeChat. As depicted in this YouTube video, through the magic of QR codes China has made its Messenger app a be-all-end-all one-stop-shop for payment. The app can be used for services such as taxis and cleaning, bike rental and even for self-service convenience stores where all payment is done in-app. This technology is extremely innovative and represents a landmark in cashless payments.
Such success would pave the way for its introduction in western countries and elsewhere. The big question is whether we will trade our privacy for the convenience of a QR code be-all-end-all payment solution. The story of cashless payment penetration in China suggests that the answer to this question is already clear.