WeChat Quietly Launches Payment Score System for Deposit-Free Services
Tencent introduces a new credit scoring system for WeChat that rewards users with deposit-free rentals based on their digital behavior. The feature directly competes with Alibaba's Sesame Credit system.
WeChat introduces a new feature called the "WeChat Payments Score" that evaluates over a billion users based on their daily activity within the app. The system tracks how people chat, shop, hail rides, and rent items to determine their trustworthiness. Users who achieve a high score receive perks such as deposit-free renting services for items like power banks.
The exact algorithm remains unclear, but tests show that the score factors in a person's shopping history and their ability to fulfill contracts. This approach mirrors the "Sesame Credit" system that Alibaba's Ant Financial operates through its Alipay wallet. Both systems use digital footprints to predict creditworthiness and offer incentives to keep users inside their respective ecosystems.
This launch represents a renewed effort by Tencent after regulators previously cracked down on private credit-rating trials in 2018. While Beijing initially encouraged tech giants to develop these social credit systems to assess people without traditional financial records, it later tightened control over the use of personal data. Despite these regulatory shifts, Tencent pushes forward with this localized pilot to boost engagement across WeChat's vast network of mini-programs and third-party services.