Chinese tourists pushing mobile payment abroad
October 15, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Mobile payment continued to soar at popular overseas destinations for Chinese travelers during the weeklong National Day holiday. Bicester Village, an outlet shopping area near Oxford in the United Kingdom, Dotonbori commercial area in Osaka, Japan, and Australia’s Sydney Airport were cited as the top three locations for Chinese consumers to pay using their phones, payment provider Alipay said. The number of transactions using Alipay at these three locations jumped 90-fold, 70-fold and 55-fold, respectively, which helped outbound per capita spending to surge 30% year-on-year. “It’s fair to say that Chinese consumers are introducing the world to mobile payment,” said Chen Jiayi, Director of Alipay’s International Business Division. Middle-aged and elderly Chinese consumers are increasingly making their presence felt. The number of shoppers born in the 1960s using mobile payment overseas jumped over 90% year-on-year during the holiday, the highest growth rate across all age groups.
To increase the attraction of cashless payment, WeChat Pay, another leading mobile payment platform, waived bills for randomly selected customers purchasing goods during the holiday in countries including Australia and Canada using WeChat wallet, the company said. Payment firms are quickly expanding their services overseas as they follow in the footsteps of China’s increasingly globetrotting tourists. More than 131 million Chinese traveled overseas last year and spent a total of USD115.3 billion, according to the China Tourism Academy.
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