DiDi, Meituan, Bilibili take part in Suzhou's $3m digital yuan test

Three Chinese internet giants are reportedly participating in the country's second city-wide test for digital Renminbi – known as DC/EP.

Local business media CLS reported on Friday that Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi, Tencent-backed food delivery app Meituan and video streaming platform Bilibili are also supporting the $3 million digital yuan test in the city of Suzhou.

The report said lottery-winners in Suzhou can spend their free digital yuan on DiDi's ride-hailing service or Meituan's bike-sharing service if they choose to activate their DC/EP wallets with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

If they activate their DC/EP wallets with Bank of China, they can spend the money on Bilibili, which is best known for offering premium animation video content to subscribers. 

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The city government of Suzhou announced last week it is distributing 20 million yuan, or $3 million, in the form of digital Renminbi to local residents via a lottery.

The test, in an effort to boost domestic consumption during the annual Double 12 online shopping festival, is in a much larger scale than the first one conducted in Shenzhen in October.

That said, the participation from DiDi, Meituan and Bilibili in the Suzhou test isn't surprising.

It was reported in July that these three companies have either inked partnership or held discussions with the People's Bank of China to take part in DC/EP's development.

About Author

Wolfie joined The Block’s news team in 2020 and switched to the research side in 2021 to focus on crypto mining analysis. Prior to The Block, he had been a journalist at CoinDesk for three years. Wolfie has a background in financial journalism.