Can Facebook's Cryptocurrency Beat WeChat in Travel?
Skift Take
Facebook makes no secret that it wants to be the WeChat of the world outside China. Is it any surprise that it's leading the development of a new payment infrastructure and the first product is — drum roll — a digital wallet?
Mark Zuckerberg has shouted out to the world that Facebook wants to be the WeChat of the world outside China. One thing he must have realized early on is that China has the likes of WeChat and Alipay because the country doesn't have an entrenched credit card payment system like the U.S. does, thereby enabling entrepreneurs to build a digital wallet infrastructure.
By leading the development of a new payment infrastructure using blockchain technology, Facebook is in effect creating a new alternative to the decades-old practice of paying via networks such as Visa and MasterCard. And the first product — no surprise — is a digital wallet available in Messenger and WhatsApp and as a stand-alone app, slated to launch in 2020. Faceboo