Ant Group, Tencent further open up their mobile payment ecosystems to state-owned UnionPay

China’s two largest mobile payments providers, Alipay and WeChat Pay, are further opening up their ecosystems to state-owned UnionPay, the country’s top bank card clearing service, amid Beijing’s push for Big Tech internet platforms to make their “walled gardens” accessible to competition.

Alipay, operated by Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group, plans to achieve full interoperability of payment QR codes with UnionPay’s Cloud QuickPass app for offline payments in every city across China by next March, according to a statement posted on Alipay’s official WeChat account on Saturday. That feature is already available in selected major cities including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Chengdu, Chongqing and Xi’an.

About 85 per cent of all merchants on Alibaba Group Holding’s online Taobao Marketplace already accept Cloud QuickPass as one of their payment options since Alipay started cooperating with UnionPay in August, according to the statement. Ant Group is an affiliate of Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Mini programs on Tencent Holdings’ multipurpose super app WeChat, meanwhile, are all expected to be able to use UnionPay’s Cloud QuickPass over time, according to a statement last week from the Shenzhen-based internet giant. That feature started being tested in late September.

The initial batch of apps with access to Cloud QuickPass includes reading app WeRead, video-streaming platform Tencent Video and e-commerce service JD.com, according to Tencent. It said consumers can also scan the WeChat Pay code through the Cloud QuickPass app for offline payments in provincial capitals across the country.

These latest developments reflect how the country’s Big Tech companies are rushing to comply with a mandate by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to open up their “walled gardens” to competition. It comes amid a wider crackdown by Beijing on the country’s Big Tech companies, related to issues such as monopolistic practices, cybersecurity and consumer rights.