China-based Tencent Holding Ltd. is upgrading its well-known social-messaging app WeChat to expand its mobile payment system to 20 countries. This move will make overseas transactions among Chinese outbound tourists more convenient.

China Daily reports that this step will allow outbound tourists to make overseas payments by scanning WeChat's quick response code. This will then be converted to renminbi payments by partnering banks then changed into currencies accepted by a foreign shop.

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The Internet giant revealed on Thursday that they are open to partner with foreign companies granting they have trading license, a website and an app. As the moment, many companies are already in collaboration with Tencent's payment platform including the Australian RoyalPay Treadwell Partner Pty. Ltd. The system currently supports nine currencies including the dollar, euro, pound and yen.

With an estimated 650 million users, WeChat is China's most famous social media app. The Ministry of Commerce reports that in 2014, international tourism grew to $165 billion solely from tourists from the mainland China. These tourists accounted for about 10 percent of overseas global consumption.

Meanwhile, competitor Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is reportedly broadening its own payment system Alipay, which povides similar services. The company has more than 30,000 stores in Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore and aims to reach 1 million in 2020.

Analysys International Group's analyst Hao Zhujing said "Mobile payment services are more popular in China than in other countries. Thanks to the popularity of online-to-offline catering and movie ticketing, a large number of Chinese consumers are getting used to making payments via smartphones." He further added: "This will give Alibaba and Tencent an advantage in eating into the overseas market share of UnionPay."

Internet consultancy Gartner Inc. Sandy Shen pointed out that "Though Alibaba and Tencent have been working with overseas retailers for some time, retail store usage is still low as there are no obvious benefits of using Alipay and WeChat while credit cards can often give discounts."

TagsTencent Holdings, WeChat app, WeChat expansion, RoyalPay Treadwell Partner, payment system