Chinese messaging app WeChat has recently introduced payments in digital yuan (e-CNY). The service is available in all 23 regions where the digital coin is being tested, including Beijing and Shanghai.

Before using this CBDC, users need to apply to create an account with WeBank Tencent. The integration of the app with more than a billion e-CNY customers will significantly expand the distribution of Chinese CBDC.

Alipay, which is the main competitor of WeChat in China, has also focused its attention on digital payments in yuan, as the company started working on this last year.

Chinese consumers are strongly attached to WeChat and Alipay, so the central bank’s cooperation with them is a logical step in the development of the project.

The number of Chinese people who have already opened yuan digital wallets amounts to more than 140 million, being 10 million of them are corporate accounts.