(Yicai Global) Jan. 19 -- Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, is trialing its own in-app payment system six months after parent company ByteDance obtained a license for such a business.

Douyin already accepts popular payment methods Alipay and WeChat Pay. It is now testing a system that can link with cards issued by 10 lenders including Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China, Bank of Communications and China Merchants Bank, the firm said.

Beijing-based ByteDance acquired its payments license after buying Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology last August. A trademark for Douyin Pay was ‘under application’ in December, according to corporate data platform Qichacha, while ByteDance also owns the domain name for douyinpay.com, which has not yet officially gone live.

Douyin will be the exclusive sponsor for the ‘red envelope’ campaign for CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala this year, a television event that draws in a vast audience, the Securities Times reported previously, without saying how much ByteDance had paid for the rights.

WeChat paid CNY53 million (USD8.2 million) to be the exclusive interactive platform for the event in 2015. The total number of WeChat red envelopes sent and received reached 1.01 billion on Chinese New Year’s Eve that year, while WeChat Shake interactions hit 11 billion. Alipay won the rights in 2016, paying CNY268.8 million.

Red envelopes, or hongbao, are traditionally used in China when gifting cash, especially at festive times of the year. Digital hongbao have become increasingly popular in recent times.

Editor: Tom Litting