Alipay Tests New Feature to Ease Money Transfers to WeChat Friends

What’s new: Ant Group’s Alipay is testing a new feature that would make it easier to transfer money to friends on the rival WeChat system.

The trials involving a limited number of Alipay users may represent a step toward connecting China’s two dominant mobile payment services in line with goals staked out by the central bank. However, a person close to Tencent’s WeChat Pay said the Alipay feature has nothing to do with WeChat Pay, and WeChat users are only “notified” through WeChat of the transfer.