Alipay, WeChat Drive Mobile Payment Growth in 1st Quarter, PBOC Finds
Xu Wei
DATE:  May 25 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Alipay, WeChat Drive Mobile Payment Growth in 1st Quarter, PBOC Finds Alipay, WeChat Drive Mobile Payment Growth in 1st Quarter, PBOC Finds

(Yicai Global) May 25 -- The Chinese mobile payment sector grew steadily in the first three months this year, while online card payments declined slightly, proving the increasing competitiveness of homegrown mobile payment platforms such as Ant Financial Services Group's Alipay and rival Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s WeChat Pay, compared to traditional bank cards.

Financial institutions processed 40 million e-payment deals in total including cash machine withdrawals and point-of-sales transactions, worth some CNY746.3 trillion (USD117 trillion), said state bank the People's Bank of China in a statement. The value of mobile payments rose 17 percent to CNY70.8 trillion, accounting for just under 10 percent of all transactions.

Online card payments still covered over 85 percent of the overall value in all e-payment transactions with 12 million purchases, but their value decreased 3.5 percent to CNY635.8 trillion.

The popularity of payments via scanning products or merchant barcodes with mobile phones has helped promote mobile payments, state-backed Xinhua News Agency reported. E-payment accounts for settlements done through online banks, telephone and mobile banks, ATMs, POS and other electronic channels.

Editors: Emmi Laine, William Clegg

Follow Yicai Global on
Keywords:   Pboc,Mobile Payments,WECHAT PAY,Alipay,Ant Financial Services,Tencent Holdings Ltd.