The top smartphone brands in China have joined forces in support of a software solution meant to provide mobile users with access to a wide variety of services that include mobile payments. Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi will be partnering with six smaller companies to accelerate the development of Quick App, which lets users access a range of services including mobile payments. It is perhaps worth noting that Xiaomi, Huawei, and ZTE were reported in 2016 to be working on their own mobile payment systems. Now, there’s Huawei Pay, though it is presently available in China so far and only to Huawei users.
The Quick App solution is expected to pose a major rivalry to the Chinese app WeChat, a messaging and social media app built by Tencent. It remains unclear, however, how the alliance will try to achieve this, with a Xiaomi representative only stating that the alliance seeks to enhance the level of efficiency for the benefit of smartphone users and app developers. Already, WeChat is largely popular in Asia as one of the best messaging apps there as it is among the few apps people in the region are using for instant messaging. WeChat is even the most popular messaging app in China alone, surpassing WhatsApp, Line, and other related applications. Not resting its laurels, WeChat moved to expand worldwide back in 2016 with the launch of a feature called WeChat Out, which is designed to let users call mobile numbers and landline for affordable prices. The offering was initially available in the United States, India, and Hong Kong where every user was given a $0.99 USD in calling credit once they start using the app. Also, one of the app’s popular features is the ability to send voice messages to anyone, an increasingly growing trend in Asia.
Its slate of features also helps boost the popularity of WeChat, which include a wide range of stickers and emojis that users can send to friends and family. The app is also designed to let users call their contacts through their WeChat account. That means users have the ability to extend the app’s calling functionality to those that have not signed up yet for the app.