Month by month, step by step, the People’s Bank of China is developing its digital yuan. This central bank digital currency (MNBC) is gradually getting into battle order to conquer the whole country. Last key point to date: its expansion into the WeChat payment service.
Having long moved away from cash, Chinese people of all ages use more than one digital payment service. Between them, WeChat Pay (Tencent) and AliPay (Ant Group, Alibaba) monopolize almost all transaction volumes. In 2021, out of 1.24 billion users of the WeChat messaging app, 900 million (72%) used WeChat Pay. A strategic means of payment, therefore, for the emancipation of the digital yuan.
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In the making since 2014, this MNBC was officially presented by the Chinese government in 2020. Since then, its development has accelerated. The Middle Kingdom has multiplied the pilots by offering the equivalent of several million euros to citizens of several large cities. Thus, at the end of last year, 140 million Chinese regularly used the digital yuan, and 62 billion yuan (8.5 billion €) had already been spent. The Beijing Winter Olympics were also an opportunity for the country to demonstrate less locally, thanks to the arrival of thousands of tourists.
If initially the Chinese had to use an application created by the central bank, the reality of consumption patterns quickly demonstrated an interdependence with digital wallets. The almighty Party would somehow impose the digital yuan on giants AliPay, WeChat Pay, and the like. Tencent has therefore taken the lead by adding an option for its users to pay in MNBC.
This integration will allow users to create a digital yuan wallet in their name, surveillance requires, with WeBank. It will then allow them to make or receive payments from the People’s Bank of China app, or WeChat Pay.
With this umpteenth expansion, the digital yuan is once again taking the path of legalization. If the MNBC is still being tested, the results show that it is ready to break free in China, and to revolutionize cross-border payments.