Users of the hugely popular Chinese social messaging and mobile payment app WeChat will soon be able to text their friends skinny soy cappuccinos, caramel Frappuccinos and pumpkin spice lattes.
As reported in Bloomberg, Starbucks announced the partnership with Tencent, owner of the messaging app, on Thursday, confirming that it would accept digital payments at 2,500 of its stores in China, allowing WeChat's 846 million active mobile users to buy coffees with a swipe of their phone.
Users will also be able to send each other Starbucks drinks and branded gifts via the app, in addition to personalized messages.
This "social gifting" feature uniquely linked with Starbucks aims to distinguish WeChat from its main competitor Alipay, another popular mobile payment app with millions of users in China.
Starbucks is not the first major foreign chain to accept mobile payments in China, however. Costa Coffee, McDonald's and KFC first accepted the payment system over a year ago, paving the way for others such as Disney and Uniqlo to follow suit.
Cashless mobile transactions are becoming increasingly popular among younger, tech-savvy Chinese, who use it to cut down time spent queueing at their favourite establishments.
According to the WSJ, the value of mobile transactions in China more than doubled last year to $235 billion—more than the $231 billion spent on mobile payments in the U.S in the same period.
Starbucks' digital launch via WeChat goes hand in hand with the aggressive expansion of its physical stores in China. In October, its China CEO revealed the coffee chain's plans to double the number of its locations to 5,000 by 2021.
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