Chinese social media giant WeChat on Thursday announced it was entering the New Zealand payments market with its automatic payment app.
WeChat said it was partnering with New Zealand company Pure NZ Gateway Ltd. to provide retailers with the ability to receive payments through WePay, part of the WeChat portal, which is used by almost 800 million Chinese.
The benefits to local merchants, particularly in the tourism and services sectors, were significant with almost 4 million Chinese visiting New Zealand every year, said Pure NZ Gateway CEO Mark Christensen.
"Users can purchase goods or services either over the counter in a retail environment or at a tourist attraction or they purchase online via our secure e-commerce gateway," Christensen said in a statement.
"The key for our company now is to ensure our merchants and retailers are ready for the 2017 summer influx."
WePay had 400 million active users in China, processing over 500 million payment transactions a day.
