Tencent sees a future where everyone gets by with just a swipe of the hand
CNN
Imagine a future where you can do just about anything simply by waving your hand: pay for purchases, take the subway, get into the office.
Imagine a future where you can do just about anything simply by waving your hand: making purchases, taking the subway or letting yourself in at the office. In China, Tencent is already doing it. The Shenzhen-based tech giant has rolled out a palm scanning service in China that’s designed to let users leave most of their essentials at home: their house keys, wallets or phones. While the technology itself is not new — companies such as Amazon (AMZN) have had their own offerings for years — Tencent wants to be the company that finally makes it mainstream, according to Guo Rizen, a senior company executive. “We have confidence in this,” Guo, vice general manager of Tencent’s Weixin Pay Industry Application unit, told CNN in an exclusive interview when asked whether it could represent a new norm. Perhaps no other company in China knows more about catering to the masses than Tencent. It owns WeChat, the ubiquitous Chinese platform that has come to be known as a “super-app,” used for everything from social networking to ordering groceries to digital payments. Now it’s betting on Weixin Palm Payment, a biometric system launched in May for users of Weixin Pay, WeChat’s sister app. The service is only available within mainland China.
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