Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by CNBC on Wednesday.
A Facebook representative did not respond to CNBC’s inquiries about whether it is trying to replicate WeChat, noting instead that the company did not “have anything further to share” about it’s broader payments effort.
“Like many other companies Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology. This new small team is exploring many different applications,” the Facebook spokesperson said.
In 2018, research firm eMarketer said it expected more than 45 percent of China’s population to have used mobile payments, compared with just over 20 percent in the United States. Chinese consumers largely skipped credit cards and have adopted WeChat pay and rival Alipay, which is owned by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial.
Not only does WeChat offer payments, but it also has other financial services like wealth management and micro-loans. Facebook’s payments push may not be as ambitious.
“The potential monetization for Facebook Coin may not be as diverse as WeChat Pay,” Choi Chun, senior analyst at China-based market research firm iResearch, told CNBC.
“A large chunk of WeChat Pay revenues are generated from commission dollars from online shopping within WeChat and wealth management services, which I don’t think Facebook would be able to tap into as the online shopping sector and wealth management sector are already mature in the U.S,” Chun added.
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