Chinese students at 11 universities and higher education institutes in South Korea can now use online platform Top School Tuition to pay their school fees via the popular Chinese social media app WeChat, it was announced on January 8th.
WeChat, along with competitor AliPay, is ubiquitous in China when it comes to paying for anything. With cash becoming rarer and rarer, the services are used for everything from paying utilities and international flights to cinema tickets and groceries.
“WeChat Pay is the most familiar and convenient mobile payment method for Chinese students”
“WeChat Pay is the most familiar and convenient mobile payment method for Chinese students. It eliminates the time-consuming and tedious process of payment for international students,” said WeChat’s owner, Tencent, in a statement on its official WeChat account.
“Today, WeChat cross-border payment services are used in 60 countries and can support transactions in 16 currencies. Following the footsteps of Chinese students, WeChat payment’s intelligence capabilities have moved abroad to various industries such as education, catering and retail abroad.”
Chinese students in South Korea usually pay fees through international remittances or in cash.
In recent years, more universities – including in the UK, Thailand and Australia – have begun accepting payments through platforms accessible to Chinese students such as Alipay and UnionPay.
The 11 institutions include several in Seoul but so far no plans to extend the services to others have been announced.
