Mobile payment in China: more than 500 million users, per capita consumption of 2,600 yuan($294)

When it comes to mobile payments, the most intuitive feeling for Chinese people is that our wallets will eventually get smaller and smaller，Whether you get a raise or not. These days, fewer and fewer people carry large amounts of cash with them when they go out on the street.

From eating, shopping, watching movies, buying food at the market to taking the bus and subway, you can think of almost all consumption scenarios in China that can be solved by mobile payment.




From street vendors to high-end department stores, mobile payments have “swept” China. Driven by corporate promotions, low credit card usage and high smartphone penetration in a society that was once based on cash, it seems everyone can pay by scanning QR codes on their phones, for all ages.

Nowadays, mobile payment has played a very important role in the daily life of Chinese people. With WeChat or Alipay and other applications, we can complete all kinds of operations such as payment, transportation, transfer and medical treatment with only one mobile phone. With the development of mobile payment, tax system is now included in its functions, including domestic tax payment and foreign tax refund procedures.

In just a few years, mobile payments have become so ingrained in Chinese life that they are even pushing stores in overseas tourist destinations to adopt mobile payment technology.
Recently, China UnionPay released a 2018 mobile payment security report, giving a lot of information.

According to China unionpay, the number of mobile phone payment users in China has reached 570 million, with average monthly consumption reaching 2,600 yuan ($294) , In 2017, the number of mobile payment transactions reached 37.5 billion, ranking first in the world.
Judging from the experience of many foreigners who come to China to work or travel, it is true that many people in China have replaced cash with mobile payments. The average mobile payment amount of 2,600 yuan ($294) is not surprising when it comes to offline and offline daily spending, when cash is rarely available.

In addition, biometric technology also plays an important role in mobile phone payment. Fingerprint, face, iris and so on are biometric identification, but now the most popular or fingerprint identification. Fingerprinting was the most frequently used form of authentication among men under 35, the report said.

At the same time, China unionpay also said that mobile payment users now have significantly increased risk awareness, the probability of online fraud is decreasing. However, the average amount of money lost by online scams also increased, from 1,600 yuan ($236) to 1,800 yuan ($265). From the amount of fraud increased, the prevention of online fraud is still a serious situation.

In addition, many smartphone users generally have high-risk behaviors in mobile payment. For example, when the mobile phone is replaced or the app is deleted, the bank card is not untied, and the QR code of various offers is also scanned.
Of course, the good news is that everyone’s awareness of anti-theft brush has been significantly enhanced, 70% of the users surveyed have purchased bank account theft insurance.

Now, mobile payment in China’s domestic popularization and expansion speed is very fast, has formed a huge user scale, but also has a huge potential for growth. Now, in addition to the two giants of WeChat payment and Alipay, traditional Banks, e-commerce platforms and inter-bank financial institutions are also actively launching their own mobile payment tools.

Today, almost all of the bank’s apps have a sweep payment feature, Recently, China unionpay also launched an APP called “cloud flash payment” and launched a large number of red envelopes to encourage users to use its APP, JD.COM, which previously focused on online platforms, has also promoted the use of payment tools offline in recent years.

Of course, there is no denying that mobile payment may bring new risks as well as convenience, but these can be reduced and solved through preventive measures such as technology.

It is only a matter of time before mobile payment becomes ubiquitous in China.

Young people like mobile payment mainly because they are poor

Why is mobile payment developing so fast in China? Jack Ma answer in “Winter Davos 2019” can be a good explanation for this problem.

Jack Ma said: “On the first day of the birth of the Internet, It’s a pervasive technology. It covers the young, the poor, and when credit CARDS were introduced only the rich had them. But when mobile payment first came out, the rich didn’t believe it, they believe in credit cards, But young people immediately accepted mobile payments because they didn’t have much money, so people will care about the dime discount. “

From the answer to this question, we can also see that there is more potential to promote mobile payment in China. If mobile payments are to be introduced in the United States, since the average daily wage in the United States is much higher than that in China, the cost of promoting mobile payment will be higher. After all, for the general public in the United States, it public really doesn’t like at 10 cents 20 cents of the discount.

In China, do you remember the last time you used cash consumption?