Mobile payment propel retail spending
Experts said on Sunday that China’s lead in mobile payments is a key driver for consumer spending and pushes developments in various sectors such as the credit system, following Apple CEO Tim Cook’s comments on the country’s lead in the sector.
Saying that these days, “a Chinese granny selling watermelons” would use mobile payment tools to conduct her business, Cook on Saturday said the prevalence of mobile payments in China is impressive.
“China is way ahead here,” he said during the annual China Development Forum hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council, a top government think tank.
The CEO of the world’s most valuable company said seemingly small matters such as this have huge significance and China is visionary in the field [ of mobile payment] and is making quick progress, according to a transcript of Cook’s speech published on news portal 163. com.
Transactions via third- party mobile payment tools in China reached 38 trillion yuan ($ 5.5 trillion) in 2016, according to iResearch.
The scale of the Chinese mobile payment market is 50 times larger than that of the US, media reports said.
According to a re consultancy Analysy cember, Alipay, ba Group Holding, held share for payments i in 2016, accounting Alipay was followed ings- backed Tenpay and domestic financ com with 3.3 percent
UnionPay, which Pay, only had 1.08 p same period.
The willingness o ers to adopt financia as striking, accordin 2016 report jointly sultancy firm EY an bank DBS.
The report said t consumers in China methods compared Singapore, and 35 financial technologie ance products compa to 2 percent in man markets. There are higher rates of fin participation in we and lending.
Zhang Yi, CEO of market consultancy said that China’s le ment tools, or for th in mobile applicatio nificance.
eport Beijing- based ys released in Deacked by Alibaba d the largest market in the third quarter g for 50.4 percent. d by Tencent Holdy with 38.1 percent cial platform lakala. t. h works with Apple percent during the of Chinese consumal technology is just ng to a December y released by connd Singapore- based that 40 percent of a use new payment with 4 percent in percent are using ies to access insurpared with 1 percent ny Southeast Asian e also significantly nancial technology ealth management f Guangzhou- based iiMedia Research, ead in mobile payhat matter, the lead ons, has huge sig-
“It’s about the efficiency brought by mobile payments to retailing as a whole. The velocity of consumer goods is also improved by the wide adoption of mobile payment tools,” Zhang told the Global Times Sunday.
“Efficiency improved when people moved from cash to credit cards. The efficiency is further improved when people move from credit cards to mobile payment tools,” Zhang said, comparing the arrival of the mobile payment age with the dawn of the computer age.
Experts said China’s lead in mobile payments is helping the development of the credit system in the country, in addition to bringing opportunities to countless small and medium- sized enterprises.
In places such as a building materials wholesale mall, all small vendors accept payment by Alipay or Tenpay, but many don’t accept credit cards, as the latter charge a fee, which small businesses on thin margin don’t like, experts said.
Fu Liang, a Beijing- based IT expert, pert, said due to its large population base, China is the largest mobile- payment ment market in Asia by the number of users. sers.
Given Chinese people’s love of traveling and shopping abroad, Chinese nese companies have also made forays into surrounding markets, Fu said. “For example, in South Korea, the prevailvailing mobile payment ( systems based d in China) can be used seamlessly at many stores.
“Via innovations, Chinese companies have solved the problem of an inadequate consumer credit system and the need to process many small payments,” Fu told the Global Times Sunday. “In a sense, payment tools actually did the job for banks or related institutions in building up a credit system.”
Zhang said that expanding overseas remains a challenge, as the behavior patterns of domestic and foreign consumers are quite different, noting that the two payment tools were born out of their respective platforms and it can be difficult for them to make a dent in new markets without social or online shopping functions.
As of December 2016, users could conduct transactions in more than 70 countries and regions via Alipay.