Japanese bitcoin exchange Bitpoint announced on Wednesday a strategic partnership with Nippon Pay to offer cryptocurrency payment options alongside China's three most popular payment services — WeChat Pay, Alipay, and UnionPay. The company claims that this is the first time Bitcoin and Ethereum will be offered together with China's dominant mobile payment platforms, marking a world-first in payment integration.
Under the agreement, Bitpoint and Nippon Pay will jointly deploy virtual currency settlement services for merchants. Starting from August 2017, in addition to existing Bitcoin settlements, Ethereum will also be added to the payment options. Nippon Pay provides a unified multi-payment application that allows users to complete transactions via a smartphone app (Android and iOS) using Bitcoin, Ether, WeChat Pay, Alipay, or UnionPay. The president of Nippon Pay told Payment News that his service is the first in Japan to bundle WeChat Pay and Alipay into a single app.
Targeting Chinese Tourists in Japan
The collaboration is tailored for Chinese tourists visiting Japan, which is the third most popular overseas destination for Chinese travelers, according to Ctrip. Japan Tourism Agency data shows that 6.37 million Chinese visitors came to Japan last year, spending 1.47 trillion yen. By adding cryptocurrencies to the mix, Bitpoint and Nippon Pay hope to attract younger, tech-savvy Chinese tourists who are familiar with digital assets.
UnionPay is the world's largest card payment organization, while Alipay (Alibaba Group) and WeChat Pay (Tencent Group) are the two dominant smartphone payment services in China. Collectively, these three providers represent over 70% of the Chinese market, processing approximately $2.9 trillion in online payments during 2016, according to payments technology platform Dlocal.
Expanding Crypto Merchant Ecosystem
This partnership is the latest in a series of merchant-focused initiatives by Bitpoint. In May, Bitpoint partnered with Peach Aviation to introduce Bitcoin services to the travel industry. Later that month, it revealed plans to bring Bitcoin payments to over 100,000 stores in Japan. In early June, it teamed up with Japan's largest online travel agent to enable Bitcoin payments at more than 1,400 hotels by summer. The addition of Ethereum and the integration with China's top payment apps mark a significant step towards mainstream adoption of crypto payments in retail and tourism.
Bitpoint emphasized that the new service will be the world's first to combine Bitcoin and Ether with China's most popular payment methods, potentially setting a precedent for other payment platforms seeking to bridge the gap between fiat and digital currencies.