encent's WeChat, China's most popular social media app, has launched its digital payments platform in Malaysia, its first market in Asia beyond China and Hong Kong.

中国最受欢迎的社交媒体应用--腾讯的微信，已在马来西亚推出其数字支付平台，这是微信在中国内地和中国香港以外的第一个亚洲市场。

Malaysia's WeChat users will be able to transfer money among themselves and make payments to offline merchants in ringgit.

马来西亚的微信用户将能够相互转账，并用该国货币林吉特向线下商家付款。

This suggests Tencent is building a local payments service, rather than taking the more common route of overseas expansion used by Chinese mobile-app providers that caters¹ to Chinese tourists or nationals living abroad.

这似乎表明腾讯正在打造本地支付服务，而不走中国手机应用提供商比较常见的海外扩张途径，即面向境外中国游客或旅居海外的中国国民。

Malaysia's central bank has been implementing² policies promoting electronic payments in a bid to boost a network that lags behind other south-east Asian markets.

马来西亚央行一直在实施促进电子支付的政策，以提振一个落后于东南亚其他市场的网络。

That has triggered the launch of digital wallets by other strong players, including Grab, the south-east Asia ride-hailing company.

这已促使其他公司推出数字钱包，包括活跃于东南亚的叫车公司Grab。

"Malaysia is a vibrant³ market. Technology-savvy Malaysians are embracing a digital lifestyle and to meet this shift, the payment experience has to evolve. Bringing WeChat Pay to Malaysia is our response to this," said WeChat Pay Malaysia.

微信支付马来西亚表示：“马来西亚是一个充满活力的市场。精通技术的马来西亚人正在拥抱数字生活方式，为了应对这种转变，支付体验必须发展演变。将微信支付带到马来西亚是我们对此的回应。”

SY Lau, senior vice-president at Tencent, told Reuters in November when the company acquired a Malaysian epayment licence, that WeChat had 20 million users in the country, equivalent to almost two-thirds of the population.

腾讯于去年11月获得了马来西亚电子支付牌照。该公司高级执行副总裁刘胜义向路透社透露，微信在马来西亚拥有2000万用户，相当于该国近三分之二的人口。

The potential for mobile payments is vast in Malaysia, where cash is still king but the number of mobile phones, mostly smartphones, outstrips⁴ a population of 32.1 million by more than 10 million, according to the central bank.

马来西亚央行称，该国的移动支付潜力巨大，在这个国家，目前现金仍是主要支付手段，但相比3210万的总人口，手机（主要是智能手机）数量要高出1000万以上。

But collaborations with local banks, of which WeChat has none, will be just as important for WeChat Pay to flourish there.

但是，要让微信支付在马来西亚蓬勃发展，与当地银行的合作（目前微信没有任何此类合作关系）将会同样重要。

At home, it took Tencent and Ant Financial, Alibaba's electronic payments affiliate⁵, years to build the links with hundreds of Chinese banks that make their services possible.

在中国，腾讯以及阿里巴巴的电子支付关联公司蚂蚁金服，花了多年时间与数百家国内银行建立联系，这些联系使他们的服务成为可能。