A customer gets ready for QR code payment at BingoBox, an unmanned store in east China's Shanghai, July 21, 2017. The 15-square meter store has no cashier, which accepts self-assisted payments by quick response (QR) codes. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)
MOBILE WALLET
The Chinese began using e-wallets amid an online shopping craze about a decade ago. Today, technological advancement has enabled China to lead the way as an emerging cashless society.
The Chinese now use their phones to buy food, pay bills, ride buses, invest in stocks, purchase insurance and donate to charity. In big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai it is rarer to find someone without a mobile wallet than someone without an actual wallet.
Ant Finance, Alibaba's financial affiliate, tracked 450 million Chinese consumers and found 71 percent payments were made on mobile devices. About 90 percent of China's millennials use mobile wallets.
In Q4 of 2016, mobile payment transactions in China reached 12.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 126 percent, according to a report released by Analysys, a consultancy firm.
In addition to promotion in China, China's leading mobile payments Alipay and WeChat Pay are making a dent in the global payment market.
WeChat Pay has covered more than 130,000 overseas businesses in 13 countries and regions, supporting settlements in 10 currencies. Alipay has entered more than 200 countries and regions supporting settlements in 18 varieties of currencies with more than 40 million overseas merchants using Alipay for settlement.
