By Adedapo Adesanya
TikTok owner, ByteDance, has rolled out an electronic payment service connected to Douyin, the Chinese version of the popular short video app.
Users of Douyin, ByteDance’s Chinese version of TikTok, discovered that they have been offered an additional payment option for in-app purchases called Douyin Pay, alongside the existing Alipay and WeChat Pay.
“The setup of Douyin Pay (Douyin Zhifu) is to supplement the existing major payment options, and to ultimately enhance user experience on Douyin,” the Beijing-based company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Alipay and WeChat are offered by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.
Douyin Pay, which functions similarly to reigning Chinese electronic wallets, WeChat Pay and Alipay, aims to supplement existing major payment options and to ultimately enhance user experience.
The move sees the tech giant wade into China’s lucrative market for electronic payment services, which are used by hundreds of millions of consumers for everything from street food to fast fashion and online purchases.
Users of the app will be able to connect bank accounts to the service, which can then be used to pay for products promoted by video influencers as well as to tip content makers.
ByteDance said it would gradually roll out the function to users.
The launch of ByteDance’s payment service comes at a time when China’s bank regulators are tightening rules for online financial services offered by internet players, which culminated in the cancellation of Ant’s record-breaking initial public offering last November.
The app, which listed over 600 million daily active users last year, has quickly grown from its short video roots to include live streaming and e-commerce.
Douyin Pay enables only general bank card functions, such as cash withdrawals and transfers, as well as payments within its own Douyin app, a company spokesperson said. Other more complicated functions such as online lending, insurance policies and wealth management products are not supported currently.
Alipay and WeChat Pay dominate China’s online payment market and their smaller rivals often have to rely on the two services for most online transactions, a duopoly that will be challenged with this new innovation.
Aduragbemi Omiyale