Users of the WeChat app in the United States are now able to send
money to 200 countries and territories via Western Union’s WU®
ConnectSM Platform
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment
services, and WeChat, a leading social communication platform owned by
Tencent Holdings Limited, today announced an agreement which gives users
of WeChat in the United States the ability to send money cross-border to
200 countries and territories via the company’s WU Connect platform.
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This collaboration further solidifies Western Union as a market leader
in the digital money transfer space by providing customers a fast and
easy way to receive money based on their needs. The agreement also marks
WeChat as the first social communication application to provide a
technology platform to support person-to-person cross-border money
transfer capabilities to more than 200 countries and territories. The
capability is now available to WeChat users in the United States, with
planned rollouts to additional countries in the future.
“Western Union's omni-channel strategy is combining our digital presence
with our distribution network that pays out in over 200 countries and
territories,” said Hikmet Ersek, CEO, Western Union. “Given
the proliferation of social media around the world, we are expanding our
activities in this exciting area. It only makes sense to include the
WeChat platform as part of the company’s innovative digital money
transfer capabilities. By teaming with WeChat and deploying the WU
Connect platform to its U.S. users, Western Union is offering yet
another new method for consumers to move money worldwide.”
The recently announced WU Connect platform embeds Western Union’s robust
global money transfer capability into third-party digital platforms to
provide users with new ways to quickly and conveniently send money to
friends and family. Consumers are able to fund the money transfer
utilizing a debit card, credit card or bank account and easily direct
the funds to a Western Union retail agent location around the world, and
to a mobile wallet or bank account where available.
WeChat is one of the world's fastest growing social apps, innovating new
ways to connect, communicate and share. WeChat together with its sister
product Weixin in China had over 650 million of monthly active user
accounts at end of September 2015, bringing together messaging, social
communication and games all within on easy-to-use app. Users can choose
to send free text and multimedia messages, make video calls or share
photos on their closed Moments social network.
For additional information on WU Connect or partnership opportunities,
please email WUConnect@wu.com.
About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment
services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western
Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western
Union provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and
convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, to send
payments and to purchase money orders. As of September 30, 2015,
the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered
through a combined network of over 500,000 agent locations in 200
countries and territories and over 100,000 ATMs and kiosks, and included
the capability to send money to hundreds of millions of accounts. In
2014, The Western Union Company completed 255 million
consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, moving $85 billion of
principal between consumers, and 484 million business payments. For more
information, visit www.WesternUnion.com.
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View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151117005449/en/
Source: Western Union