ACCEPTANCE OF WECHAT PAY AMONG CONSUMERS IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

With the launching of mobile payment services by some of the biggest smart phone manufacturers, namely Apple Pay by Apple, Samsung Pay by Samsung and Android Pay by Google, it raises the consumers’ awareness about the option of mobile payment. WeChat, the most popular social media application in China, had also recently launched its integrated mobile payment feature, WeChat Pay, in Malaysia as the first country for its expansion in Asia outside of China. Its first partnering bank in Malaysia, Hong Leong Bank, is confident that WeChat Pay would be positively accepted by the consumers, in view of the proven platform and the ready-to-activate existing users of WeChat application in Malaysia. With the advancement of technology, mobile payment potentially become a replacement to cash, cheques, credit cards and debit cards. However, Bank Negara Malaysia reported that, in 2017, the mobile payment transaction value per capita is only RM0.50 which is far lesser than cash transaction at RM2881.40 per capita. Therefore, this study intends to determine the acceptance of mobile payment, in particular, WeChat Pay, and identify the factors influencing the acceptance of WeChat Pay among consumers in Malaysia. The findings show that, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived risk have a significant relationship with the acceptance of WeChat Pay among consumers in Malaysia while the perceived usefulness is the dominant factor which influence the acceptance of WeChat Pay among consumers in Malaysia.