Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, March 30 (TMTPOST) — Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao now allows users to use WeChat Payment as a payment method on its platform.

The function is now only available for a small proportion of users on Taobao as it is still being internally tested.

Users who are invited to test the new payment feature on Taobao revealed that they can choose to pay via WeChat Payment when buying on Taobao. Upon choosing to pay via WeChat Payment, a QR code will be generated for users to scan to complete the payment.

The feature does not directly allow users to automatically pay via WeChat Payment. This means that users will need to save the QR code to their phone and then scan it with WeChat to complete the payment. Users can also choose to ask their friends on WeChat to complete the payment for them. A payment link will be generated for users to send to their friends to complete the payment.

An internal source at Alibaba Group confirmed the news report with the reporter of the Chinastarmarket, commenting that “this is the trend.”

Taobao only supported payment methods from its own fintech system, such as Alipay and Huabei, etc.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China required a number of Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Baidu and Huawei, to remove restrictions on access to each other’s platforms. Companies that fail to comply with the guideline will face relevant penalties in accordance with the law.

WeChat announced in November in 2021 that all external links can be directly opened from WeChat’s chat. Users can also complete purchases on e-commerce sites on WeChat without having to turn to other applications. That was the first time for WeChat and Taobao to allow links to each other to be opened on their platform.