Thunes’ ‘Pay the World’ Vision Now Includes WeChat’s 1.3B Users

Thunes has teamed up with China’s Tencent Financial Technology, allowing members of the Thunes network to send payments to the 1.3 billion users on Tencent’s Weixin service.

The collaboration makes Thunes the first payment infrastructure network to connect with the Chinese company, according to a Tuesday (Nov. 22) news release. Most of the users on Weixin — known internationally as WeChat — are in China

“China is now seen as a global leader in digital payments and payment innovation, and mobile payments are at the forefront of the evolution,” said Daphne Huang, Thunes senior vice president for the Asia-Pacific region, in the release. “We are excited to bring the ability to connect our global customers with Weixin’s massive consumer base, creating tremendous opportunities for service enhancement and revenue generation for all members in our ecosystem.”

Earlier this year, PYMNTS spoke with Thunes Collection CEO Christophe Bourbier who discussed the company’s “Pay the World” slogan.

He said for him, it meant a world in which consumers across the globe can leverage technology to make payments as easy as using an instant messaging platform.

“When we say pay the world, we would like any payment, not just payments in the U.S. or Europe or between the U.S. and Europe, [but] any payment to be as easy, quick and as inexpensive as [sending] a WhatsApp message,” Bourbier told PYMNTS.

However, he argued that consumers in developed regions like the U.S. and Europe have much more advanced options than people in emerging regions like Africa, APAC and Latin America, where payment options and connectivity are limited.

Last month, Thunes teamed up with Visa to allow individuals and small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) using Visa Direct to move money internationally to 78 digital wallet providers.

The companies said this cross-border, send-to-wallet capability, will let those users move money to 1.5 billion digital wallets in 44 countries and territories.