(Yicai Global) March 30 -- Alibaba Group Holding’s e-commerce platform Taobao has started internal tests of Tencent Holdings’ mobile payment tool WeChat Pay, Securities Daily reported today, citing industry insiders.

The Securities Times report verified a recent online rumor that users can copy a link in the ‘Ask a WeChat Friends to Pay’ page in order to pay by WeChat Pay, but it was not able to find the rumored ‘WeChat Scan’ page.

The operators of Taobao and WeChat Pay have yet to comment.

“People are mostly interested in the interconnection of AliPay, which is run by Hangzhou-based Alibaba, and WeChat Pay, two of the most popular mobile payment platforms in China,” said Yu Baicheng, head of 01Caijing Think Tank.

“If Tencent’s payment product enters Alibaba’s ecosystem, it will mean WeChat Pay has expanded into an important e-commerce scenario,” said Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst at market consultancy Botong Analysys. “It will also give Taobao users an additional payment option and improve their user experience.”

“Taobao providing the WeChat Pay option is only a prelude to the interconnection of Alibaba and Tencent. So far, progress is slow, but it keeps moving,” Yu said.

China has been cracking down on monopolistic behavior among internet-based giants since last year. Last July the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a six-month campaign to rectify problems such as the malicious blocking of links and interfering with the operations and products of rivals.

Since then, a number of platforms have started to allow online payments to be made by third-party providers. Alibaba’s food delivery platform Ele.me and video platform Youku already allow payment with WeChat Pay. Both WeChat and Taobao now let users pay by China UnionPay, e-retailers Meituan and Pinduoduo have fully opened up to mainstream payment tools and WeChat has also lifted restrictions on access to external links in personal chats.

Editor: Kim Taylor