GGRAsia – Mobile e-payments at Sands China to hit US$370mln in 2018

Mobile e-payments at Sands China to hit US$370mln in 2018

Apr 27, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Macau-based casino operator Sands China Ltd expects mobile contactless payments at its properties to amount to an aggregate MOP3 billion (US$370.3 million) in 2018. The figure covers only non-gaming purchases.

The estimate was provided by the firm’s senior vice president of e-commerce, Dean Zhao, quoted by local Chinese-language newspaper Macao Daily News.

Mr Zhao added that, in Sands China’s properties, sales at merchants offering mobile contactless payment services were growing at a faster pace than at outlets not offering that payment option. He was speaking on the sidelines of an event promoted by WeChat Pay, the e-payment services unit of Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.

WeChat Pay is an in-app payment feature that allows users of social network platform WeChat to make mobile contactless payments inside and outside mainland China. It is considered one of China’s largest mobile payment platforms.

Macao Daily News quoted Mr Zhao as saying that shops at Sands China’s properties that offered mobile contactless payments had seen sales up by 31 percent year-on-year during the Chinese New Year holiday in February, versus a 6-percent increase for shops that did not support mobile payments.

Sands China was the first Macau casino resort operator to accept WeChat Pay payments, namely for for hotel room bookings, according to a company press statement from May 2016.

Macau rival casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd announced in November that the WeChat Pay mobile payment platform would be made available at its Galaxy Macau, Broadway Macau and StarWorld Hotel properties, in a partnership with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Macau) Ltd.