HIGHLIGHTS
- Tencent's price cuts will be effective from September 2021 through September 2024.
- This regulation is in line with similar steps made by Chinese technology businesses this week.
- Regulators released rules for online food delivery firms last month.
Tencent, the Chinese social media behemoth, announced on Thursday that it will decrease transaction costs for small and medium-sized merchants using its WeChat payments system by 10%.
The cutbacks will take effect on September 1, 2021, and will last until September 30, 2024, according to the business.
Merchants must fulfil China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's categorization guidelines for small and medium-sized firms in order to qualify for the decrease.
According to the announcement, Tencent would also lower costs for money withdrawals from customers' bank accounts.
This regulation follows similar actions made by Chinese IT businesses in the last week.
Ele.me, the food delivery service backed by e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group, stated on Wednesday that it will decrease its commission rates for merchants in COVID-19-affected districts.
Prior to that, competing delivery company Meituan said that it will lower its commission.
The revisions follow a surge of regulatory tightening across a wide range of businesses in China, with the consumer internet industry a regular target.
In order to support a faster recovery from the pandemic in the services sector, regulators released recommendations last month for online food delivery platforms to slash service fees to assist lower operational expenses for catering enterprises.
