Walmart's Western China Stores Drop Alipay in Favor of WeChat Pay
Yzmg.com, 3/24/18
Retail giant Walmart's western China locations have stopped accepting internet conglomerate Alibaba Group's (NYSE: BABA) Alipay payment solution in favor of rival internet conglomerate Tencent's (0700.HK) WeChat Pay. According to a statement from Walmart China, the new partnership between WeChat Pay and western China Walmart locations, which includes Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing, took effect on March 15.
Walmart said that this matter was a business decision.
According to publicly available information, Walmart and Chinese B2C e-commerce platform JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) formed a deep strategic partnership in June 2016, and Walmart is currently the third-largest shareholder in JD.com at 12.1%. Tencent is JD.com's largest shareholder at 21.25%, and so Walmart's investment in JD.com has aligned it with Tencent's New Retail efforts.
Reportedly, another member of Tencent's New Retail camp, Hunanese supermarket and consumer electronics retail chain Better Life Commercial Chain Share (002251.SZ) (Bubugao), has also stopped accepting Alipay around the same time.
Alipay is a third-party payment processor operated by Alibaba Group's financial services affiliate Ant Financial. WeChat Pay is an in-app payment service available via Tencent's WeChat mobile messaging app.
Keywords: wireless Alipay Tencent Bubugao third-party payment 0700.HK Alibaba Group WeChat JD.com financial services WeChat Pay 002251.SZ JD BABA Better Life new retail Wal-Mart Ant Financial Group mobile payment
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