Watch Desk posted an update
Tencent has launched TenPayGo, a standalone payment app for foreign visitors to China. Bloomberg reports that it lets people pay tens of millions of merchants using Visa, Mastercard and Apple Pay.
Why it mattersThe app is aimed at making China’s often QR-first payment system less awkward for visitors who arrive with an overseas card and no local wallet. That is a concrete technology story, not merely another payments brand appearing in a crowded app drawer. It also puts Tencent into more direct competition with Ant Group in serving international travellers. The practical question is whether TenPayGo makes paying easier at the till, where a beautifully simple app can still meet the ancient enemy known as “merchant compatibility”.
Discuss: Should foreign visitors be given a single interoperable payment app, or should travellers expect to maintain separate wallets for each country they visit?
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
No replies yet. You can be first without making it weird.