WeChat taps Hong Kong’s community of 170,000 Filipinos to help them remit funds home

‘We Remit’ function in Tencent’s popular mobile app provides an alternative way for 170,000 overseas Filipinos in the city to send money home

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Max Liu, co-founder and chief executive of EMQ. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 7:00pm, 24 Oct 2017Updated: 11:27pm, 24 Oct 2017

Mainland internet giant Tencent Holdings has partnered with Hong Kong financial technology start-up EMQ to provide WeChat as a trusted, new remittance channel for around 170,000 Filipino migrant workers in the city.

“We worked with Tencent to change the user behaviour and user experience of remitting money from Hong Kong to families in the Philippines,” said Max Liu, the co-founder and chief executive of EMQ, in a panel about digital banking and financial inclusion on the second day of Hong Kong FinTech Week.

“There is nothing better than to put out a product that adds value.”

EMQ collaborated with Tencent to bring to Hong Kong’s largest ethnic minority the new “We Remit” function on WeChat, the mobile messaging service that has evolved into the mainland’s largest social network, as well as a popular online platform for payments and money transfers.

Users of We Remit, which went live in the second quarter of this year, can send money to the Philippines through the WeChat mobile app with no charge and confirm that the remittance had been received on the other end in under 10 minutes, according to Liu.

He said that convenience would allow more Filipino domestic workers to enjoy their off day on Sundays, instead of queuing up for about four hours, filling up forms and paying between HK$150 and HK$200 in fees to remit money.

Should Tencent decide to implement remittance fees in future, Liu said these would still be far cheaper than what existing service providers charge.