When Tencent’s WeChat launched in 2011, China was primarily a cash society. But within the span of a few years, the messaging app hurled the country into the digital payments and services era. This was a consequence of many of WeChat’s unique—and in the West, effectively impossible—opportunities and choices. For example, WeChat enabled users to connect directly to their bank account rather than require an intermediary credit card or digital payments network, which is prohibited by the major gaming consoles and smartphone app stores. Without intermediaries, and because Tencent wanted to build
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