WeChat has updated its mobile messaging app with a feature that lets users to make money transfers to one another by generating a unique QR code.
The firm, owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, introduced to system earlier this month in a bid to capitalise the growing trend for digital currency in the country.
Users can capture their credit or debit details on their mobiles and use it to transact. WeChat also works with offline businesses to promote WeChat Payment through QR codes.
Mobile payments in China increased by 137% in the three months ending June 30, year on year, according to the central bank.
Other companies have also been getting in on the trend. Alipay, the online payment arm of e-commerce company Alibaba, launched sales promotion programs in July in cooperation with the KEDI, Alldays and the Familymart convenience store chains targeting consumers using QR code-based mobile payments.
Six months after China’s Twitter-esque Sina Weibo also launched a mobile wallet feature.
Besides the internet industry, the banking sector in China is also “quietly” preparing to initiate QR code payments.
Internet-based payments totalled 5.3 trillion yuan (R9.2 trillion) in the second quarter of 2014, a 129 percent increase year on year, the central bank reported on August 18.
In addition, mobile phone payments of 4.9 trillion yuan marked a 137 percent increase.