WeChat Pay, the payment system of the popular Chinese instant messenger, is making its debut in Russia. In late October Russian Standard announced to be the first Russian bank to support such payments, with the Novotel Moscow Center hotel as the first participant in the program.
“In the near future, other Russian Standard partners will also be connected, primarily those willing to attract Chinese tourists or having already become China-friendly,” the bank stated.
Going further, Yandex.Checkout, the B2B branch of Yandex.Money, announced yesterday that it has made the Chinese payment method available to its 90k merchant base.
Thus, WeChat Pay can be used as an additional payment option by stores interested in selling goods and services to Chinese tourists.
“Russia attracts approximately 1.5 million Chinese tourists annually, and Yandex.Checkout offers a payment method that they are accustomed to. Merchants benefit from WeChat Pay with increasing average check and sales volume when working with tourists from China,” stated Anna Kuzmina, Deputy Chief Commercial Officer at Yandex.Checkout, in a press release.
As one of the first use cases, Yandex.Checkout cites Citilink, a home appliance and digital electronics retail chain with 12 outlets in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Payments via WeChat Pay are contactless and processed via QR codes.
WeChat Pay has not been made available yet on Citilink’s website, but the Yandex.Checkout press service told us they were in the process of integrating the solution with “a number of other e-merchants.”
WeChat Pay claims 800 million users worldwide, while millions of merchants use the system to accept payments in their stores, according to company data cited by Yandex.Checkout.
Russian national card goes global
Almost simultaneously, Ingenico Group, a global leader in seamless payments, announced it will enable international e-merchants to accept the MIR payment cards issued by Sberbank.
The latter, which is Russia’s largest financial institution, is the issuer of more than half of the 45 million MIR cards issued since the launch of the system in 2015.
The MIR card is a key part of Russia’s strategy to build its own payment system. The country thus aims to reduce dependence on such foreign companies as MasterCard and Visa.
Vladimir Komlev, CEO of the MIR Card Payment System operator (NSPK), said that, from January to August 2018, no less than 58 million online transactions were performed using MIR cards.
“We are glad that, thanks to the joint project between Sberbank and Ingenico, foreign web stores will accept MIR Cards. It will significantly expand the geography of online purchases for cardholders,” Komlev stated.
