Alipay and WeChat roll out cashless campaign

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With QR codes becoming a popular payment option, Alipay and WeChat Pay, two major third-party mobile payment tools in China, will run campaigns in August to bring more merchants and customers into the cashless world.

WeChat Pay's "Cashless Day" campaign began on August 8 and will last until the end of the month. Its users can share their awards with friends on the app, helping merchants get more customers.

WeChat Pay's major rival, Alipay, also ran its Cashless City Week promotion from August 1-8. It is said that Alipay allowed its users to get awards in their Alipay accounts by paying in physical stores. More than 10 million merchants are reported to have joined the promotion.

Mobile payment is popular among Chinese youth. /VCG Photo

There are more than 500 million mobile payment users in China and about 400 million users pay on their smartphones while shopping in physical stores, according to figures released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

The two e-wallet giants dominate China's domestic mobile payment market. As of the end of 2016, the market shares of Alipay and WeChat Pay were respectively 54 percent and 37 percent, said Beijing-based marketing consultancy Analysys International.

China had 724 million mobile phone users by the end of June 2017. More than 35 percent of them often make mobile payments while about 31.8 percent still prefer cash or credit cards, according to CNNIC.

VCG Photo

In fact, cashless payment has become popular among senior citizens.

Nie Lina, 62, has learned shopping online and ordering take-away by using a smartphone.

"There are always various promotions and it really helps sometimes," Nie said.

As of June, the proportion of China's web users aged 40 years old and above rose by 1.7 percent compared with 2016. During Alipay's Cashless City Week this year, participation by users aged above 50 increased by 10-fold compared to the same period of last year.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency