Changi Airport and WeChat Pay have announced a three-year marketing partnership to launch and publicise joint shopping promotions.

WeChat Pay, an online-payment platform integrated into the popular instant-messaging app WeChat, is a popular mode of payment for Chinese consumers. The WeChat client currently has more than 1 billion monthly active users and growing.

China is one of the airport’s key passenger markets, with Chinese passengers accounting for about a third of Changi Airport’s total sales last year.

Chinese passengers will be able use WeChat as a payment option when shopping and dining across Changi’s four terminals at most of the airport’s merchants and brands by the end of this year.

Edwin Lim, GM of Changi’s advertising, marketing and promotions, said the partnership will enable the airport to send targeted marketing messages to WeChat users.

Grace Yin, operations director of WeChat Pay, added that Singapore is an important part of the Belt-and-Road Initiative, and that the firm hopes for a long-lasting partnership with the airport.

Changi will be the first airport in Southeast Asia to launch WeChat Pay as a mobile-payment platform on a large scale across its wide range of commercial offerings, with more than 150 outlets accepting it as a mode of payment. It will have the widest acceptance of WeChat Pay among all Asian airports outside of China.