(Yicai Global) April 6 -- Chinese food delivery giant Meituan will issue e-yuan coupons to residents of a number of cities that have entered China’s sovereign digital currency’s trial scheme.

Meituan will dispense gift packs worth CNY40 (USD6.28) each to residents of the 11 cities that have entered the digital yuan trials, the Beijing-based company said on April 2, the same day China’s central bank released the list of the third batch of cities to be added to the e-yuan pilot program.

Chongqing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Xiamen, and other six cities in eastern China’s Zhejiang province including Hangzhou, which will host this year’s Asian Games, will be added to the existing 10 cities to pilot the e-yuan, according to the latest list released by the People’s Bank of China.

Internet platforms have become the main channels for the public to access the e-yuan in daily life, said Wang Pengbo, senior financial analyst at consultancy firm Botong. They help industries related to people’s consumption, including the service industry, to recover by promoting the inclusiveness and large-scale availability of the digital yuan.

The digital yuan has a broad development prospectus because both the number of users and the amount of e-yuan payments still account for only 1 percent of those related to traditional electronic payments.

The e-yuan, which has been applied to fields including wholesale and retail, catering and cultural tourism, and administrative payment, had 261 million users, with a total transaction value of CNY87.6 billion (USD13.8 billion) at the end of last year, according to data from the PBOC.

The PBOC has been rolling out tests of the digital currency in several cities since last October. Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, and Dalian are already experimenting with the e-yuan.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Futura Costaglione