Korean users of Samsung Wallet can now pay at WeChat Pay merchants in mainland China with Samsung Wallet Money, after Tenpay Global, Samsung Electronics and Woori Bank signed an agreement at Tencent’s Shenzhen headquarters on October 26, Beijing Daily reported on October 27.
Samsung Wallet Money is a prepaid wallet that Samsung runs with Woori Bank. Users top it up from a Korean bank account and spend the balance in China, either by scanning a merchant’s collection code or by showing a payment code at the till. Tencent said the service reaches the tens of millions of merchants that accept WeChat Pay. It is the third Korean wallet on the network, after HanaPay and Travel Wallet. Daniel Hong (洪丹毅), a vice president of Tencent’s fintech unit, tied the launch to the APEC meetings due to take place in Shenzhen.
The Korea Herald reported that the wallet charges no foreign transaction fee and pays Samsung Wallet points worth 0.3% of each in-store purchase, with no cap. Top-ups from Korean debit and credit cards will follow, and the three companies plan to add credit card payments for China QR codes in the first quarter of 2027.
Why it matters: Foreign visitors now pay in China in two ways: by linking an overseas card inside WeChat Pay or Alipay, or by using a home wallet that connects through the cross-border QR code gateway led by the Payment & Clearing Association of China (中国支付清算协会) under PBOC guidance. Each wallet added through the second route lets a visitor pay without opening a Chinese account, and Tencent earns merchant-side fees on every scan. For Samsung, the deal takes a wallet built for the Korean market abroad, and the Korea Herald said tap-to-pay in other overseas markets is next.
Source: 北京日报 Beijing Daily, via 钛媒体 TMTPost, October 27, 2026 (Chinese-language source, translated); The Korea Herald, October 27, 2026
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