Tencent has launched its WeChat Pay service in Europe in a partnership with German payments firm Wirecard. WeChat Pay currently has 600 million monthly active users while Tencent’s social media service WeChat has 938 million monthly active users. However, WeChat Pay’s market share in China’s USD5.5 trillion online payment market is still lower than Alipay. In the first quarter of 2017, Alipay held a 54% share of mobile transactions by value, while WeChat Pay was at 40%, according to research firm Analysys. However, the gap is narrowing with Alipay accounting for over 80% of the transaction value three years ago.

Silicon Valley online payment start-up Stripe said it has partnered with Alipay and Wechat Pay to allow merchants to accept payments from most Chinese consumers. The partnerships allow online merchants using Stripe to pay with Alipay and Wechat Pay on their websites. Alipay said the link-up with Stripe helps it connect consumers with overseas businesses in more than 25 countries and regions.