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BEIJING, Jan 19- Beijing-based ByteDance on Tuesday launched its third-party payment service for the Chinese version of its hit short video app TikTok, “Douyin Pay,” as it seeks to expand into the business of e-commerce in China.
“The launch of Douyin Pay is to complement the main existing payment options and ultimately improve the user experience in Douyin,” the payments service firm said in a statement.
Douyin users, numbering 600 million active per day, could previously use Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay, the most popular third-party mobile payment channels in the country, to purchase virtual gifts, live streamers or items. of stores on the platform.
ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming developed the company’s payment service in China by acquiring Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology Co last year. Hezhong Yibao obtained a third-party payment license from the central bank in 2014.
The outgoing administration of Donald Trump in the United States has ordered ByteDance to dispose of US assets from TikTok for national security reasons.
The company, which denies the accusation, has been in talks for months with Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to move those assets to a new entity.
Douyin is ByteDance’s main income generator.