WeChat Africa and McDonald's South Africa have partnered to pilot mobile payments service Quick Pay at selected flagship restaurants in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The WeChat Wallet features have been extended to create Quick Pay, which allows customers to generate a QR code in their WeChat Wallet that is then scanned by a scanner at the point of sale counter.

Launched late last year, the WeChat Wallet allows customers to securely store their bank cards and make instant cash payments within WeChat. Chip and Pin-enabled debit and credit cards can also be used to top up the balance.

Quick Pay will now be available to WeChat users to pay for food in McDonald's, with McDonald's South Africa chief marketing officer Daniel Padiachy saying his company was continuously searching for innovative ways to enhance customer experience.

"McDonald's is a brand built on the principles of quality, service, cleanliness and value. With that in mind, we believe that WeChat's Quick Pay will further assist us in upholding these principles," he said.

"WeChat strives to make life easier for customers and we place customer value over innovation. Although Quick Pay is innovative it also offers customers a much faster and easier payment option to traditional payment," said WeChat Africa CEO Brett Loubser.

Customers automatically become Instant Money users when registering for WeChat Wallet, which allows those without bank accounts to enjoy the benefits of the platform. Standard Bank's Instant Money vouchers make up the cash balance, which can be topped up via traditional Instant Money channels.

"South Africans don't have a problem in making payments. Cash and card payments serve most payment scenarios very well. Our challenge is to create value for customers when they make payments," Loubser said.

To celebrate the launch of Quick Pay, WeChat will also give first 20,000 McDonalds customers who use Quick Pay 50% cash back in their WeChat Wallets. The service will be available at McDonalds Sunnyside, McDonalds Skinner, McDonalds Waterfront, McDonalds Carnival City and McDonalds Parktown from 1 December.