The Mobile Payment In China
Nowadays thanks to technological advances citizens have access to unlimited benefits of technology. The most important are better conditions to transport, communication, fast transactions, among others. Indeed, I will like to start with an example of a friend. To begin with, my friend was about to go on the trip to Vietnam the next day so she must have her Chinese identity card for taking a train to the airport in another city. But she didn’t remember where she put her purse inside which there were her ID card, credit cards, and some cash. Thus, it is normal to find a big trouble with that.
However, nowadays in China its irrelevant, because wherever she goes her smartphone is generally the only thing that she needs. Above all, this is actually a phenomenon that may happen on almost every Chinese people nowadays because wallet less life has become the mainstream in mainland China. It is incredible how fast the transition has happened because just a few years ago everyone still used cash. However, now the mobile payment has set its foot to every corner. Even if it’s just in a small unknown retailing shop or a nameless street food track, people are basically given 2 choices for paying the bill, WeChat pay (owned by Ten pay) or Alipay, before bringing cash out of pocket as a third option. With a mobile device or a smartphone, no matter it’s Apple or Android system, by a simple scan on the QR code in the apps, the deal is done in 2 seconds with a “beep” sound. In some big cities of China, even the buskers and baggers in the streets have put up their printed QR code board to make it easy when they receive tips from passers-by.
According to the statistics from iRearch, the third party mobile payment has been popularized and been over 80% on the market share on 2018. Why are Chinese people crazy about mobile payment? Compared to the traditional payment (cash payment and card payment), mobile payment is more convenient, rapid, time-saved, efficiency-oriented and environment-friendly. Its mobility, promptness, integration, and customization make it widely accepted and disseminated. The main difference between mobile payment and traditional payment is the collection of data. From the moment the traditional payment is made, the transaction is terminated and the relationship between the merchant and the customer is over. Mobile payment, on the contrary, is just the beginning. It can establish the relationship between customers and merchants and allow businesses and consumers to build stickiness. From this standpoint, mobile payment is not only a trend, but it will also become a form. Furthermore, every coin has two sides. Mobile payment is completed on the mobile phone so that it’s easy to be hacked by virus and cause fund security problems. Moreover, when consumers make consumption through mobile payment, merchants have mastered a lot of relevant data of consumers which may bring great security risks to consumers. In addition, people will be in a trouble if being outside with a cell phone that runs out of power.
To conclude, China now is undoubtedly leading a revolution on the third party mobile payment. It simplifies our social life with many conveniences although now it comes with some problems. However, to make this revolution stay longer and better develop, looking for solutions to the problems is necessary, mostly when internet access is growing fast, which will provoke difficulties to manage it, such as the recent case of Facebook with Cambridge Analytics.
