Conversion of Small Bills into Wechat Pay
A kiosk money exchange service will begin for Chinese tourists at Incheon Port. Chinese tourists visiting Korea can exchange small amounts of Korean coins for electronic money that can be used in China.
The Incheon Port Authority (www.icpa.or.kr.IPA) announced on December 4 that it will provide China mobile electronic currency exchange service beginning on Dec 5 to increase the convenience of Chinese tourists who will use Incheon Port for the Korea-China car ferry service.
To this end, IPA has set up a kiosk for the electronic currency exchange service at the First International Passenger Terminal of Incheon Port and started a service to convert small bills and coins, which are difficult to exchange in China, into China Mobile electronic currency Wechat Pay. IPA installed related equipment at the 1st International Passenger Terminal of Incheon Port and has provided a pilot service.
China's e-money, which can be exchanged at Incheon Port, is a service that can be used via an instant messaging service created by China's Tencent. Wechat Pay is a global messenger with 1.1 billion users and 800 million active users like Whatsapp and LINE.
In particular, Wechat Pay is based on Wechat, which is the largest mobile e-currency service in China that Chinese tourists are more familiar with than credit cards. This is mainly used by tourists visiting Korea to pay for goods or services. The installation of the kiosk will allow Chinese tourists to charge their Wechat Pay devices chat and use withdrawal services more conveniently.
The IPA will review a plan to expand the kiosk into the second International Passenger Terminal by analyzing the results of kiosk use at the first International Passenger Terminal.