WeChat appears to be in plans to launch a UPI app in India soon. As per Entrackr, the app is likely to be dubbed WeChat Pay and might be launched by the end of May-June. The report further claims that Tencent, the parent company of WeChat has teamed up with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank and will create a UPI handle for itself.
WeChat Pay is already in use in China and lets users pay utility bills and carry out financial transactions. It also works like a wallet. The WeChat users will get a payment account be default. When it comes to the Indian market, this service failed to take off. While it has over 1 billion daily active users in its home market China, it lost its ground in India after its entry in 2012.
Given that Tencent is popular for its PUBG game, we can expect the in-app purchases to be available via WeChat Pay. The company appears to have a slew of ideas for what its app will have to offer its users in the country.
Competition for WeChat Pay
When it comes to competition, the digital payments sector has grown to a great extent and several services were introduced in the country. Recently, when the Redmi Go was launched in the country, the company also introduced the Mi Pay, its digital payment solution for UPI payment transfers and bill payments.
Already, there are other similar payment options including Google Pay, Paytm and PhonePe among others providing similar facilities. Now, if the WeChat Pay service makes its way into the country, then it will face a competition until the time it picks up users. As the existing services provide a lot of offers and rewards for users, the company has to consider the same at during its initial days to gain a considerable number of users.