Chinese users now can pay for purchases at McDonald’s directly within WeChat. Any user that follows the official WeChat account of McDonald’s China now can find an e-coupon for an afternoon tea deal. You can make payments with Tenpay or other online payments services offered by Chinese banks without leaving WeChat. Then you’ll receive a WeChat message with a QR code for redemption at a McDonald’s store.
Meifuhui, an online cosmetic retailer founded by a former Tencent’s exec, was one of the earliest that supported Tenpay within WeChat. It is reported that a few more merchants have had the WeChat payments capability (in Chinese).
Tenpay once said they’d support payments within WeChat by the end of last year. We don’t know what took it so much longer. But still, Tenpay isn’t the prevailing online payments method with Chinese — Alipay is. Also it’s not very likely users would like to make payments with banks on mobile as it takes several more steps and security must be a concern with consumers. Yixun, the online retailer Tencent acquired, started supporting Alipay from November 2012. So it’s not impossible WeChat would introduce Alipay later.
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