By Jeremy Cheng
When having dinner at the restaurant, buying goods at the mall, or shopping online, what is your favorite way to pay for the check?
Credit card, currency, or mobile payment?
Currently, there have been increasing numbers of people who use the mobile phone to pay for everything.
The two biggest mobile payment companies in China are WeChat Pay and Alipay.
For instance, this is how you pay for the bill at the restaurant.
This is how you pay for the fruit at the market.
This is how you pay for something at the mall.
Even when shopping at the Sephora on El Paseo, you can see an Alipay sign when you check out.
Even the less fortunate people in China will print out the QR code, which is a barcode that helps people receive or send money to others.
The use of cash and coin currency is declining rapidly in the Chinese economy. Surprisingly, four years ago, this payment method didn’t even exist because everyone used paper money.
In most of the mainland cities, most of the people use their smartphones to pay for all different kinds of fees. In a restaurant, the server may ask you, “WeChat Pay or Alipay?” as opposed to asking, “credit card or debit card?” This is because paper money is not as popular in China anymore.
WeChat, a Chinese social media app not unlike Facebook, brings a lot of convenience to the daily lives of the people who live in China. One function of the app is WeChat Pay, which is one of the two main payment methods in China.
In the past four years, Hong Kong used to post a news report that said that in the year of 2016, Chinese mobile payment reached 5.5 trillion dollars, which is 50 times of the American marketing model (112 billion).
I came to America and studied here in 2015. WeChat Pay was not that popular yet. When I went back to China for Christmas break, my mom told me that in order to pay someone for something, one simply sends money from their WeChat account to another. At that moment, I asked my mom, “Are you serious?”
My mom laughed at me and said, “Yep.”
When having dinner or afternoon tea at a restaurant or cafe, I can pay for something with my phone quicker than I can pay with paper currency.
Street artists in China can print out their QR code and display it, which makes it easier for people to give them money for their hard work. It is the same for everyone, from the wealthier people to the people with less money.
Some other countries are also currently trying to reduce the usage of cash-and-coin currency. In China, they have almost totally switched from cash-and-coin currency to mobile payment. Recently, a Chinese woman was called by the bank she uses. They told her that she forgot her credit card in their ATM machine for three weeks, and she didn’t even notice!
Editor: Leo Milmet
Leave a Reply