(Yicai Global) July 15 -- Huawei’s Digital Payment Service will become an important framework for Huawei Technologies’ Harmony ecosystem and will not be used as a tool to compete with other mobile payment giants, the president of the Chinese tech giant’s payment business group told Yicai Global recently.

Huawei, which obtained a mobile payment license last year, has no plans to make a high-profile entrance into the finance sector and does not intend to seize market share in the short run, Ma Chuanyong said.

The Digital Payment Service already has over 100 million monthly active users. But people usually mistake it for Huawei Pay, which is a smartphone payment service rolled out in conjunction with the country’s biggest bank card provider China UnionPay, Ma said.

“Charging commissions is the main way that third-party payment companies earn money, but Shenzhen-based Huawei is more interested in the added value of payment services that will introduce customers to other Huawei apps and create loyalty to the Harmony ecosystem,” Ma said.

For Huawei, payment modes in the mobile era will significantly change. Future payment scenarios will be on mobile phones, watches, or automobiles rather than by scanning a QR code, Ma said. For example, Huawei smartphone users who drive into a gas station will be able to refuel their cars without even getting out of their auto by ordering and paying through their cell phones.

At present, Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Wallet and Alibaba Group Holding’s Alipay take up over 90 percent of the mobile payment market, and the rest is mostly occupied by smartphone makers. Both Xiaomi Corp. and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, for example, have financial subsidiaries that offer loan and financing services.

But other internet giants such as e-retailer Pinduoduo, online travel agency Trip.Com Group, TikTok operator ByteDance Technology and short video platform Kuaishou Technology will soon muscle into brand new fields such as payment licenses and ecosystems.

Huawei entered the payment sector in 2011 targeting settlement services for apps on the Huawei AppGallery. The firm started to provide payment services in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates in 2016 and at same time released bank card payments, e-wallets and e-bank payment services.

Editor: Kim Taylor