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Hong Kong

When it comes to mobile wallets Hongkongers love WeChat Pay, but prefer using Apple Pay

Tencent Holdings’ mobile payment app aces the satisfaction charts in Hong Kong, but loses out to Apple Pay in terms of popularity, according to a survey conducted by JD Power  

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A signboard showing Apple Pay, Alipay and WeChat Pay is seen at a store in Guangzhou, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. WeChat Pay was rated the best mobile payment app in a customer survey in Hong Kong. Photo: Handout
Jane Li

Hongkongers rated WeChat Pay as the best mobile payment app in terms of satisfaction, but when it comes to popularity it lost out to Apple Pay, a survey showed.

The internet giant Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay topped the satisfaction charts for mobile wallets with 7.7 points out of 10, followed closely by Apple Pay at 7.6 points, according to the 2018 Hong Kong Retail Banking Satisfaction Study by JD Power, a global marketing information services provider, which released the findings on Monday. 

The survey was based on responses from 2,371 retail banking customers in the city and was conducted between November 2017 and January 2018.

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WeChat Pay topped the satisfaction charts for mobile wallets in Hong Kong. Photo: Edward Wong
WeChat Pay topped the satisfaction charts for mobile wallets in Hong Kong. Photo: Edward Wong

While on the surface it seems that Hongkongers love WeChat Pay, only about 8 per cent of the respondents said they actually use the mobile wallet. WeChat Pay had about 768 million users during the recently ended Spring Festival, according to Tencent CEO Pony Ma Huateng.

Apple Pay stimulates once moribund Hong Kong mobile payments market

Meanwhile, Apple Pay, which has about 127 million users globally, was the most popular mobile wallet in Hong Kong, with about 29 per cent of respondents saying it was their main mobile wallet, followed by Octopus O! ePay at 17 per cent, Android Pay at 16 per cent and 15 per cent using Alibaba Group Holding’s Alipay, the study showed. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

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