China is offering an alternative to physical identification cards. It’s using a popular messaging app to roll out a new electronic ID system.
The pilot program is letting Chinese citizens register and store a virtual version of their official state-issued ID cards through WeChat, one of the hottest apps in the country.
The Chinese city of Guangzhou’s Nansha district is behind the pilot program, and on Tuesday said it’ll be rolled out nationwide in January.
WeChat has major popularity in China. The product, which comes from the Chinese company Tencent, has almost 1 billion users.
WeChat is only acting as a middleman in the ID processing. The app is just a gateway to the new electronic ID system, a government-run operation that will handle and store the actual data.
