8B Launches Weixin Pay Acceptance Across Kazakhstan

8B has launched Weixin Pay acceptance for merchants across Kazakhstan, enabling businesses to serve Chinese travelers using their primary payment method.

The rollout comes at a time of rapid growth in Chinese tourism. In the first 11 months of 2025, Kazakhstan recorded more than 876,000 visits from China, already exceeding the total for all of 2024. With 2025 officially designated as the Year of Chinese Tourism in Kazakhstan, this upward trend is expected to continue.

For merchants, the opportunity is significant, but until now, not fully accessible.

Chinese travelers rely heavily on Weixin Pay for everyday transactions. Without it, businesses risk losing customers at the point of purchase. With 8B’s integration, merchants across tourism, aviation, retail, HoReCa, transportation, and digital services can now accept Weixin Pay seamlessly, without complex technical or regulatory barriers.

Beyond enabling payments, the integration connects merchants to the broader Weixin/WeChat ecosystem of 1.4 billion users.

Through 8B, merchants become eligible to appear in the Weixin Pay Global Gift Pack, an in-app feature that recommends partner businesses to Chinese users traveling abroad. This creates direct visibility at the exact moment when consumers are deciding where to spend.

Chinese tourists are also among the highest-spending visitors to Kazakhstan, with an average spend of around $1,000 per trip. In 2025 alone, their contribution to the national economy is estimated at approximately $500 million.

Despite the rapid development of tourism infrastructure and increased air connectivity between China and Kazakhstan, payment acceptance has remained a bottleneck. 8B was built to address precisely this challenge enabling merchants to convert growing tourist flows into revenue.

The rollout begins with a strong focus on travel and transportation, where a significant share of tourist spending is concentrated. At the same time, onboarding is already underway for merchants in retail, restaurants, education, and entertainment, particularly in Almaty and Astana.

The platform is designed for scale, allowing businesses of all sizes across Kazakhstan to connect to Weixin Pay through a single integration. Local operations are supported through a licensed payment organization in Kazakhstan, ensuring full regulatory compliance.

Kazakhstan is quickly emerging as a key destination for Chinese travelers. With Weixin Pay now available through 8B, merchants are better positioned to meet this demand and capture its full economic potential.

‍