In the internet age, WeChat Pay leverages its massive user base to build an ecosystem around WeChat Pay, expanding into numerous “small-amount,” “high-frequency” long-tail payment scenarios. Understanding users and their needs is a hallmark of WeChat.

WeChat Pay was launched in January 2013. Founder Zhang Xiaolong believed that WeChat Pay should be deeply integrated into users’ daily lives, serving as the “infrastructure of the digital world” rather than an independent tool. This business philosophy of “making commercialization invisible” has consistently guided WeChat Pay, charting its uniquely distinctive path to prominence.

In the early stages of 2013, WeChat Pay supported basic functions such as public account payments and QR code payments. In October of the same year, it partnered with China People’s Insurance to launch a full compensation service. Although WeChat Pay started later than Alipay, which was launched in 2003 as a guarantee tool for Taobao to address trust issues in e-commerce transactions, Alipay launched mobile payments in 2008, introduced QR code payment technology in 2010, and partnered with Tianhong Fund to launch Yu’e Bao in 2013. However, WeChat Pay did not miss out on the industry’s growth opportunities and has since emerged as a strong competitor to Alipay in the subsequent catch-up phase.

By the end of 2013, WeChat had 270 million monthly active users, but these users were primarily drawn to WeChat’s chat functionality and did not inherently have the inclination to use WeChat Pay. WeChat Pay faced the dilemma of “having users but no payment scenarios.” The core issue was the inherent cognitive gap between social scenarios and payment scenarios. Users would not voluntarily use a social tool as a payment tool; a “bridge” was needed to connect these two scenarios.

WeChat Red Packets served as this bridge, though it was an unintended yet successful initiative by the team at the time. It ingeniously integrated social relationships, traditional cultural customs, and payment functionality into one. Red packets are not merely a transfer function but a carrier of emotions and social relationships. When users send red packets, they first think of “expressing blessings” rather than “transferring money,” and this psychological shift makes payment feel natural. More importantly, the “grabbing” mechanism of red packets created a viral effect in social sharing, enabling WeChat Pay to go viral in a short time and achieve scalable user growth.

However, a WeChat red envelope alone is not enough to keep people using WeChat Pay, as everyone withdraws their money after the New Year. What truly enabled WeChat Pay to flourish like spring bamboo shoots after rain was the widespread and refined long-tail payment scenario ecosystem, which has excellent characteristics: “high frequency,” “small amounts,” and “essential needs.” Examples include micro-businesses, Didi Chuxing, Meituan Takeaways, and Life Nine Squares.

Take the integration of WeChat Pay with Didi Chuxing as a key example. It did not simply provide payment functionality or use large-scale operations to encourage users to adopt new payment scenarios, but rather redefined the user experience in the transportation scenario. Users no longer need to download the Didi app; they can hail a ride and make payments directly within the WeChat Life Nine-Grid, creating a “one-stop” experience that fosters dependency on WeChat Pay and significantly increases the conversion rate of WeChat users using WeChat Pay. Similarly, the WeChat Pay interface’s “Life Nine-Grid” allows users to naturally transition from chat windows to lifestyle travel, mini-programs, and micro-commerce — long-tail “small-amount,” “high-frequency,” and “essential” payment scenarios — greatly enhancing user stickiness.

Therefore, from a competitive strategy perspective, WeChat Pay has adopted a subtle penetration approach rather than Alipay’s aggressive “high-profile” model, focusing more on converting high-profit financial services and “high-value” and “low-frequency” financial payment scenarios. This is also evident from the data: as of Q4 2024, both Alipay and WeChat Pay had over 800 million monthly active users (MAU). However, Alipay users’ average monthly payment amount (2,860 yuan) was 2.3 times that of WeChat Pay users (1,240 yuan), while WeChat Pay had a higher average daily usage frequency.

In terms of data asset management and user profiling, WeChat Pay has also performed well. WeChat Pay’s advantage lies not in technology but in its access to users’ social relationship data. This data enables WeChat to accurately understand users’ behavioral patterns, social circles, and consumption preferences, thereby providing more personalized services. While Alipay possesses users’ consumption data, it lacks social dimension information, resulting in limitations in the depth of user insights.

The rise of WeChat Pay coincided with the rise of the O2O industry, marking the gradual penetration of online payments from the online to the offline space. The earliest adopters were primarily scenarios involving essential daily needs where traditional methods were cumbersome, such as mobile phone top-ups and utility bill payments. The next category to adopt electronic payments was e-commerce, as it is a purely online scenario with relatively low barriers to entry. China’s e-commerce sector, led by Taobao and Alipay, was among the first to adopt electronic payments.

Next came O2O, where users select products online and consume offline. Payment serves as the final step in the online process, with Didi Chuxing, Meituan, and Eleme being typical examples. The highest barrier is in purely offline scenarios, as the entire activity takes place offline, making it difficult to digitize the payment process separately and get people accustomed to pulling out their phones at the checkout counter to find the QR code in the app. Additionally, unlike the significant “head effect” seen in online merchants, offline merchants are numerous and highly dispersed, requiring extensive on-the-ground promotion, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, the offline sector is the most challenging to penetrate and the slowest to develop.

From a technological evolution perspective, both parties are pursuing the ultimate “seamless payment” experience. From passwords to fingerprints to facial recognition, the technology itself is not a barrier, but the key lies in how to integrate the technology into users’ usage scenarios.

The examples of Starbucks’ “Use Stars to Speak” and McDonald’s mini-program demonstrate that, within the experimental environment of WeChat mini-programs, payment competition is not a competition of single functions but an ecological competition of “scenarios + data + services.” The key to the success of “Use Stars to Speak” is not the gift card function but the seamless integration of social relationship chains, personalized customization, and offline consumption, creating new consumption scenarios. The value of McDonald’s Mini Program lies not in ordering and payment, but in connecting user, merchant, and platform data, enabling precise marketing and personalized services.

The success of WeChat Pay offers valuable insights into the payment industry. In the digital age, the true competitive advantage lies not in technology — which can be quickly replicated and potentially surpassed by competitors — but in a deep understanding of user behavior and psychology based on user data, and the ecosystem built upon this understanding.

Telegram was founded by the Durov brothers (Nikolai and Pavel Durov) in 2013 and has grown into one of the fastest-growing instant messaging platforms globally, with approximately 900 million monthly active users as of 2025. Telegram has evolved from a simple chat tool into a multifunctional platform integrating social networking, large groups, and one-way update channels, with privacy, security, and open-source client software as its core features. By entering the payment industry through the Telegram Open Network (TON) and its related cryptocurrency projects, it has taken a significant step toward becoming a super app, aiming to seamlessly integrate messaging, social networking, and financial services.

Telegram’s payment journey began with the TON blockchain project announced in 2018, which aimed to support in-app payments and broader transaction scenarios through its native cryptocurrency, Gram. However, regulatory pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2019 forced Telegram to halt its initial coin offering (ICO), temporarily derailing the TON initiative. Despite this setback, Telegram swiftly adapted its strategy, integrating third-party payment providers, and introduced payment functionality in 2022 through Telegram Premium subscriptions and in-app purchases, laying the groundwork for a broader payment ecosystem. Today, Telegram leverages TON (now community-driven The Open Network) to support peer-to-peer transfers, in-app purchases, and mini-app transactions, particularly excelling in Web3 and gaming sectors. Telegram Payments is emerging as a potential competitor to WeChat Pay and Alipay, especially in markets prioritizing privacy and decentralization.

Telegram’s payment ecosystem is noteworthy due to several core advantages. First, it has a large global user base — 1 billion users spread across the world, unlike WeChat, which is mainly rooted in China. This gives Telegram payments inherent potential for cross-border expansion. Imagine street vendors in Southeast Asia or freelancers in Eastern Europe conducting transactions on Telegram — this global reach is something many payment platforms can only dream of.

More importantly, Telegram’s inherent focus on privacy from its inception gives it a unique advantage in the payment space. Features like end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages attract users who are skeptical of traditional banks and centralized platforms. The addition of the TON blockchain further reinforces this, with low-cost, fast transaction processing making small payments a breeze — like buying an item in a game or tipping a favorite blogger with cryptocurrency, all completed in an instant. This high-frequency, small-amount payment scenario mirrors the logic behind WeChat’s rise through red packets and Didi Chuxing payments, both of which deeply integrate payment into user scenarios, building a “small-amount,” “high-frequency,” and “essential” payment ecosystem to enhance user stickiness with TON payments.

Telegram’s mini-apps are another game-changer, similar to WeChat’s mini-programs, further solidifying the payment ecosystem. These mini-programs embedded within the chat interface allow users to shop, play games, and even handle complex transactions without leaving Telegram. In 2024, blockchain games based on Telegram gained significant popularity, with users spending small amounts to purchase in-game items and trade virtual assets. This immersive experience made payments as natural as chatting. Additionally, Telegram’s group and channel features provide an ideal environment for social commerce — from fan donations to community crowdfunding, payments are seamlessly integrated into social interactions, closely aligning with WeChat’s strategy of “commercialization through subtle integration.”

Meanwhile, Telegram’s decentralized architecture gives it a significant advantage in cross-border payments. TON’s blockchain technology eliminates the need for traditional banks’ cumbersome processes and high fees, addressing a critical pain point for global SMEs and individual users. An African entrepreneur can directly receive payments from European customers via Telegram, avoiding PayPal’s high fees and lengthy waiting times.

Telegram’s payment strategy is highly flexible and pragmatic. It does not follow WeChat’s approach of deeply cultivating a closed ecosystem, nor does it adopt Alipay’s aggressive spending on subsidies. Instead, it leverages the decentralized trend to carve out a new path in the global market. Its core logic is to attract users with privacy and openness, lower payment barriers through mini-apps and blockchain technology, and integrate payment scenarios with social scenarios, making payments a natural and seamless behavior. Users chat in groups, and through social virality, they might suddenly come across an entertaining mini-game, click in to play a few rounds, and casually purchase in-game items — the entire process flows seamlessly. This integration of “scenarios + services” closely mirrors WeChat’s approach of using the “Nine-Grid” feature to consolidate services like ride-hailing, food delivery, and bill payments into a single platform. TON’s decentralized technology is also a game-changer, offering low transaction costs and fast speeds, making it particularly suitable for emerging scenarios like Web3 and cross-border payments. Additionally, Telegram’s open API and highly customizable bot features distinguish it from the relatively closed and centralized WeChat, attracting countless developers to create tailored mini-apps for it, spanning various scenarios from e-commerce to gaming.

However, Telegram’s path will not be smooth sailing. Regulatory concerns persist, with the 2019 TON controversy and Pavel Durov’s 2024 arrest casting doubt on the platform’s stability. Compared to WeChat, Telegram lacks a robust e-commerce and O2O ecosystem akin to Tencent’s, making it challenging to replicate WeChat’s user retention through strong O2O scenarios like Meituan and Didi. In terms of revenue models, while Telegram Premium and transaction fees generate income, they still lag behind WeChat’s diversified revenue streams in terms of scale and growth rate.

Perhaps for Telegram, the Web3 boom has provided an opportunity for its TON project. The success of blockchain games is just the beginning, and more decentralized applications may emerge in the future. Emerging markets are another goldmine. The demand for financial inclusion in Southeast Asia and Africa is strong, and Telegram’s low-cost payment system could fill this gap. If it can collaborate with local e-commerce platforms or service providers to address ecosystem shortcomings, Telegram has the potential to become a global “WeChat Pay.”

For startups like Allscale, which are building invoicing, payroll, and social commerce solutions based on stablecoins, Telegram and WeChat’s payment stories can serve as strategic references. Allscale’s modular system is already taking shape, with features like payroll management, invoice processing, and team collaboration. However, the key is how to integrate these tools into users’ core business activities in a way that feels natural, rather than just stacking them as cold, technical features.

From another perspective, Allscale’s strategy is compatible with Telegram’s. Allscale is similar to WeChat Mini Programs on the TON chain and serves as a powerful builder of Telegram’s payment ecosystem. Allscale can collaborate with Telegram to leverage its ecosystem and user base. For example, integrating Allscale’s stablecoin payment system into the TON blockchain would allow users to process invoices or payroll directly within Telegram’s mini-apps. Imagine this scenario: a freelancer takes on a job in a Telegram group, and the client issues an invoice and makes an instant payment using stablecoins through Allscale’s mini-app, with the entire process completed in just a few minutes. This seamless integration enables Allscale to quickly reach Telegram’s 900 million users. In terms of social commerce, Allscale’s “social store” concept aligns deeply with Telegram’s mini-app. Allscale can develop a Telegram-native store module, allowing users to display products, manage orders, and receive payments directly within the chat interface. Fans can purchase items by clicking a link, eliminating the need to redirect to PayPal. Furthermore, Allscale’s payroll module can also be developed into a mini-app version, enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to manage global team payroll directly within Telegram, automatically handling tax and compliance issues.

The success of Telegram and WeChat Pay has shown Allscale that the key to payment solutions lies not in the technology itself, but in how to make users feel that payment is a natural part of their daily lives. Just as Telegram makes payments fun through tipping and games, Allscale can incorporate social or gamified elements into invoice and payroll scenarios. For example, sending employees a “performance bonus” when paying salaries, or automatically triggering team rewards when invoices are issued. This way, users won’t feel like they’re using a tool, but rather engaging in a warm, interactive experience.

Capturing “high-frequency” usage scenarios similar to WeChat and Telegram may be key. Telegram drives payments through small-amount, high-frequency scenarios like games and tips, and Allscale can also enter similar scenarios, such as allowing content creators to use biolinks to receive fan tips or enabling small businesses to settle invoices quickly with stablecoins. The closer these scenarios are to users’ daily lives, the higher the stickiness. The decentralized approach is also worth learning from. Telegram uses TON to reduce transaction costs. Allscale’s stablecoin is naturally suited for cross-border and low-cost payments. The key is to highlight the advantages of stablecoins’ immediacy and low fees, precisely targeting users who dislike traditional finance, especially in scenarios where PayPal has high fees and slow settlements.

Data assets are another gold mine. Telegram uses group and channel data to gain insights into user behavior, and Allscale can also leverage invoice and transaction data to help merchants predict inventory, analyze customer preferences, and even provide credit-based financing services. Just as WeChat uses social data to optimize services, Allscale can make data a catalyst for business decisions.

Finally, Allscale can learn from Telegram’s open ecosystem. Telegram’s mini-apps are constantly enriched by the developer community. Allscale can also open its API to encourage developers to create customized plugins for its payroll and invoice modules, covering more niche scenarios, such as revenue sharing settlements in the gaming industry or fast payments for cross-border e-commerce.

Telegram’s payment strategy acts as a flexible trailblazer, leveraging its advantages in privacy, decentralization, and globalization to carve out a niche in the payment sector. If Allscale can leverage this momentum by integrating with TON and developing mini-apps, it can quickly integrate into Telegram’s ecosystem and reach global users. By emulating Telegram and WeChat’s strategies, Allscale can make payments an integral part of users’ daily lives, amplifying value through data and ecosystem expansion. Allscale has the potential to evolve from a tool-based platform into an indispensable business operating system. The road ahead is long, but the direction is clear.

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