Tencent partners with Line on mobile payments in Japan โ Nikkei Asian Review
What happened: Chinese social app king Tencent will partner with Japanese chat app Line for mobile payment. The collaboration is widely seen as a move to improve tourism experience in Japan. Prior to the tie-up, Line Pay was already available at roughly 1 million locations. Line will lease terminals compatible with Tencentโs WeChat Pay starting from mid-December to small and midsize restaurants and stores that have yet to adopt Lineโs own Line Pay offering. The service with Tencent will start next year.
Why itโs important: Chinaโs online payment services are going abroad, with Chinese giants partnering with local market leaders. The Tencent-Line collaboration is seen as a response to Yahoo and SoftBankโs alliance with Alibaba which allows Alipay and their own PayPay. The Chinese players in both of these alliances each boast 700 million to 800 million users, a significant user base size for any overseas tourist market.
