Starbucks has announced its partnership with Tencent's WeChat, striking a gift card and payment deal.

The strategic partnership of the two companies will co-create a new social gifting feature on WeChat in early 2017. Starbucks will be the first retail brand to combine and bring a locally relevant social gifting and digital payment experience to China’s WeChat. Starbucks will also have an access to WeChat users’ data. 

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The new deal will allow WeChat users to purchase each other Starbucks-branded drinks as well as gifts. After the purchase, they can send them via the app along with personalized messages. WeChat has 846 million monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2016.

Both companies plan to introduce the use of WeChat Pay as a digital payment method for the estimated 2,500 Starbucks outlets across the country. WeChat Pay is a cash-free digital payment services in China, with over 300 million users that connect their bank cards with WeChat

“Starbucks and Tencent share similar values to enable greater human connections through our respective products and services, and I am pleased to partner with an established and respected social and mobile industry leader in China,” Belinda Wong, the CEO of Starbucks China, said.

The upcoming features are designed out from WeChat’s red envelope feature, which came from a Chinese gifting tradition that allows people to send money digitally to family and friends.

The Seattle-based company plans to include expanding to 5,000 cafes in China for the new feature. Starbucks plans to double the number of its Chinese store by 2021. Globally, it plans to add 12,000 locations in the next five years.

TagsStarbucks, WeChat, Tencent, gift card, WeChat Pay, mobile payment service, frappuccino, coffee