As two giants in the Chinese internet industry, Taobao and WeChat have made significant progress in interoperability today. Today, according to multiple insiders, Taobao platform plans to fully introduce WeChat Pay, which is a landmark event of interoperability between Alibaba and Tencent platforms.

'Taobao is following up on the opening of full integration with WeChat Pay because the technical department is still optimizing it. Please refer to the payment page for whether user orders can be used.' Today, a Taobao customer service representative told Cailian Press. So far, WeChat Pay has not yet appeared on the Taobao App.

Today, Alibaba and Tencent's payment interoperability has made further progress, with news that the Taobao App will soon fully support WeChat Pay.

At present, regarding the news that Taobao will soon fully support WeChat Pay, WeChat Pay stated that the functionality adaptation with Taobao platform merchants is currently being opened up, and please pay attention to the announcements of the Taobao platform for the specific launch time. WeChat Pay has always adhered to the concept of open cooperation and actively explored interoperability and cooperation with various fields.

Alipay responded by stating that openness, collaboration, innovation, and sharing are the basic spirits of the internet and the trend of industry development. Alipay will uphold this spirit, deepen strategic cooperation with Taotian Group, increase technological innovation and product innovation, and continue to create greater value for merchants and consumers. It will not only open up cooperation in payment products, but also in internet technology, AI technology, and other areas to help the vitality and prosperity of the digital economy, and open up greater business space for the Alipay platform.

'The integration of WeChat Pay into Taobao has long been expected in the market, and after continuous pilot testing, it has finally achieved full integration, marking a historic breakthrough in interoperability between giants and playing an excellent demonstrative effect for further interoperability work in the industry.' Su Xiaorui, senior researcher at SuXizhi Research, told Cailian Press.

If Taobao introduces WeChat Pay, it will become an important milestone event in the payment industry. Taobao has been eager to try to integrate WeChat Pay in the past. In February of this year, users discovered that some Taobao orders could be directly redirected to WeChat Pay for payment. At that time, Taobao customer service said that WeChat Pay is currently gradually opening up to a limited number of users and only supports selection when purchasing certain products.

In addition, in 2021, Alibaba's subsidiaries, including Ele.me, Youku, Damai, Kaola Haigou, and Shuqi, have all integrated WeChat Pay. At that time, Taote, Xianyu, and Hema apps also applied for integration with WeChat Pay, and Taote has now fully integrated WeChat Pay as a payment method.

In July 2021, UnionPay QuickPass took the lead in opening up interoperability with Alipay. According to the Financial Association Society, as of now, more than 36 million users and millions of merchants on Taobao app are using the convenient and secure payment services of QuickPass app and banking app, and both active users and merchant scales have seen significant growth since the initial launch.

In May of this year, JD Pay and WeChat Pay achieved interoperability, becoming the first third-party payment institution in the industry to simultaneously connect WeChat personal codes and merchant codes.

Today, Meituan Takeaway and Meituan Hotel have officially joined Alipay. Industry insiders generally believe that with the addition of WeChat Pay on Taobao and the deepening cooperation between Meituan and Alipay, China's internet will usher in a new round of "interoperability" and bring multiple benefits to all parties involved.

Su Xiaorui pointed out that based on the phased achievements of "interoperability" in the past, before WeChat Pay, Taobao had already integrated various external payment methods, and payment in Taobao scenarios had already been in an open state. However, this integration still holds significant meaning.

"Given the business volume, this is the first time that giants have integrated with each other, so this smooth integration is indeed of great significance. Considering users' payment habits on the Taobao platform and the history of diversified payments already being available on Taobao, it is expected that this integration will not have a significant impact on existing payment services such as Alipay." Su Xiaorui pointed out.

Xue Hongyan, Deputy Dean of the Star Map Institute of Finance, told Financial Association Society reporters that the interoperability of payment tools and commercial ecology can to some extent break the monopoly status of specific payment tools within closed ecosystems, giving the choice to users and helping to improve the user experience. Conversely, new payment tools can bring new users, which is also bullish for the long-term healthy development of the commercial ecosystem. Therefore, the comprehensive introduction of WeChat Pay by Taobao is a win-win situation for the platform, payment tools, and users.