On Saturday, China’s leading e-wallet WeChat Pay added a new feature, allowing users to issue virtual cards to elderly relatives.
The new feature allows elderly individuals who have WeChat accounts to conduct electronic payments, even if they previously had not activated the platform’s payment function. In China, many senior citizens do not have a bank card, which is a prerequisite for using WeChat Pay.
This move is designed to help WeChat close the gap between its 1.08 billion monthly active users and WeChat Pay’s 900 million monthly active users. By late last 2018, Alipay had 500 million active users, while Apple Pay had just 127 million globally.
WeChat Pay also opened up access to international users early last year, allowing cards that are issued outside of China to be linked the platform.
