Mobile payments surged across China during the just-concluded National Day holiday as the eight-day holiday period sparked a huge consumption boom across the country.
The extended holiday saw a wave of spending in China between Oct. 1-8, with millions of people choosing to travel for leisure or return back to their hometowns to celebrate the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, which this year landed on Monday.
Mobile payments have become the dominant trend in recent years as China moves towards a cashless society, with leading Chinese applications such as WeChat and Alipay being the most popular methods.
According to data from WeChat Pay, the biggest spending occurred in Beijing, Shanghai and the southern metropolises of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, while other cities like Chongqing, Chengdu, Suzhou, and Dongguan also emerged as being among the top ranked consumption centers in the country.
In terms of travel spending, payments at electric vehicle charging stations via WeChat Pay soared by 43 percent year on year, while purchases of public transportation tickets climbed 21 percent amid the holiday travel boom.
Leisure consumption also expanded, with fitness-related transactions up 16 percent and beauty and hair services rising 11 percent, according to the figures provided by WeChat Pay.
The data also showed that expenditure on digital products rose by over 11 percent from a year ago, driven by a series of expanded trade-in policies recently launched in China – which offer incentives for consumers to replace their existing goods with newer models.
Meanwhile, data showed the outbound tourism market also performed strongly during the eight-day holiday period as cross-border payment transactions increased by 21 percent year on year, with WeChat payments in New Zealand surging 131 percent and those in Italy doubling year on year, highlighting the growing global influence of these forms of payment.
Thanks to visa-free policies for Chinese travelers, countries such as South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand all experienced a significant surge in WeChat payment transactions during the holiday.
In addition, the number of transactions processed via WeChat Mini Programs – which refers to small applications embedded within China's popular social media platform WeChat – also saw a hike, with those related to tourism and dining growing by more than 50 percent and 30 percent respectively, while daily transactions by Chinese tourists at small overseas merchants jumped by over 70 percent.
Data from the other leading payment service provider Alipay showed that the top five foreign destinations for Chinese tourist spending during the holiday were Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, while Greece, Laos, Nepal, Portugal and Turkey saw the fastest-growing spending by Chinese visitors during the same period.
In terms of spending categories, data showed Chinese tourists most frequently used Alipay when making purchases of clothing, groceries, jewelry, dining, and cosmetics items during their stay overseas.
Mobile payments surge as eight-day holiday drives consumption across China
