Alipay, the mobile payment of Alibaba Group, as the No 1 preferred payment system in Asia. About 82 percent of the 520 million Alipay users paid for goods and services via the platform in 2017. More than 40 million brick-and-mortar stores nationwide have enabled mobile payment in the past year. In addition to shopping, mobile payment has expanded further into public services as over 200 million users paid for social security, transport and other public services on mobile at least once last year. The frequent use of mobile payments enabled about 41.5 million users to enjoy services, such as bike-sharing, without having to pay for deposits, and was worth more than 40 billion yuan (6.15 billion U.S. dollars) last year thanks to good Alipay credit records.
WeChat Pay, which is controlled by Tencent, was ranked the second most popular payment option, reflecting the swift rise and popularity of mobile payments in the world’s second largest economy.
