Alipay, Wechat Pay shake up payments market

A customer uses WeChat Pay to pay the bill inside a restaurant in Guangzhou, China. - Reuters

HONG KONG: Three years ago cash was still king in China – until Alipay and WeChat Pay shook up the entire ecosystem.

Today, their dominance in mobile payments for everything from taxi fares to peer-to-peer transfers have not only made them household names in a country of 1.4 billion people, but incumbent payment operators are being forced to innovate or risk being left behind.