The Alipay app also allows users to use in app third party services such as: In fact, WeChat actually has a lot of partnerships set up with other Chinese companies which allow you to directly access them as a Mini Program. JD is not the only app you can access thorugh WeChat. You are also able to directly access JD through the WeChat app. Similarly, thanks to a deal in 2015 between Tencent and Jing Dong, you are only able to use WeChat Pay as a mobile payment on JD. This is because they are both owned by Alibaba so it makes sense for their business not to allow their competitor WeChat Pay as an option on their shopping apps. You’ll see that the only usage Alipay has which WeChat Pay doesn’t is the shopping apps Taobao and TMall. In fact, there are now some shops and venues which only accept mobile payments.

Whether it’s ordering food, getting a taxi, topping up your electricity, buying plane tickets or sending money to friends the sky really is the limit with these mobile payment apps. Yes, nowadays WeChat Pay and Alipay can be used for pretty much everything. WeChat Pay vs Alipay || What Can They Be Used For? Living in Beijing Part 1 | Being a Beijing Expat 🌎 What’s the Deal?īeijing is an incredibly large city, and because of this looking for apartments and getting prepared for living in Beijing can be extremely daunting. With more supported currencies and a much higher limit for withdrawals, you can see some of the ways that Alipay is more focused towards ecommerce and business.

In the table below you can see some of the key differences between the two smart payment systems. As Alipay was originally created as a payment platform for the Alibaba website, it has become more of an escrow payment service. Popular uses are purchasing groceries, paying bills, transferring money to friends, sending red envelopes and other everyday transactions.Īlipay on the other hand puts more emphasis on e-commerce payment and financial services. WeChat Pay is more of a social app used by most users to navigate their daily life. This means that although both systems can be used for similar things the focus of them is slightly different. The main difference between WeChat Pay and Alipay is that WeChat Pay is an in-app feature of the social media app WeChat whereas Alipay is a dedicated smart and mobile payment system.

Wechat pay for foreigners