Mobile payments up 86% in China for 2016

Details: James Barton; Category: Mobile Finance; 23 March 2017; 4673 views

China saw a surge in mobile payments across 2016, with transactions up by 86% over the year to 25.7 billion.

The Bank of China noted that the total value of payments had increased by 46% to CNY158 trillion ($22.9 billion), while the 164 billion transactions conducted over various non-bank payment channels such as Alipay, Baidu Wallet and WeChat amounted to CNY99.3 trillion, doubling the figure for 2015.

Across the past two years, internet banking has been rapidly adopted in China and mobile is now the most prevalent payment method. The concept has taken root to the extent that mid-sized internet platforms are now considering offerings in the banking and insurance sectors.

The China Internet Network Information Centre disclosed that during 2016, almost 68% of mobile phone users in China used their device to make a payment.

China’s eager adoption of mobile money was noted by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who recently observed that the country was pulling ahead of the US and Europe in terms of developing payment technologies, driven by the small businesses willing to try out a new approach.