Tencent, American Express team up

Fox Business.

The move marks American Express' first joint venture with a third-party online payments provider in China, and comes as the Chinese company continues to look for ways to expand its presence abroad.

The Wall Street Journal says users of Tencent's Tenpay payments service will be able to buy goods on sites in the US and the UK using an American Express online shopping service called Globaleshop.

The deal will allow Tenpay “to rapidly expand the scope of our business and accelerate our move into offering cross-border, online payment services”, says Tenpay GM Luke Liu.

Beijing research firm, Analysts International's data show that after Alipay, Tencent's Tenpay has a 21.2% share of the third-party online payments market on the mainland as of the second quarter, followed by Union Pay with 11.1%, reveals China Daily.

The past three months saw the company's share price slump 22.61% after it posted the lowest profit growth in nearly four years in the second quarter, as higher costs for expansion and acquisitions squeezed margins.