Cash is already pretty much dead in China as the country lives the future of mobile pay right now

by Dramelin 6:30 PM 0 comments

Alipay is owned by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial Services and has 520 million users, according to its international website.
The app is linked to online money market fund Yu`e bao, encouraging users to invest and spend with Alipay.
Attractive interest rates of nearly 4 percent or more have turned it into the largest money market fund in the world, with 1.
43 trillion yuan ($217 billion) as of the end of June, according to state media reports citing Yu`e bao`s manager, Tianhong Asset Management.
"We expect China ePayments to quadruple to Rmb300tn, while eWealthmanagement AUM and eFinancing could triple to Rmb 6.
7tn and Rmb 3.
5tn by [2021]," Elinor Leung, head of Asia Telecom and Internet Research at CLSA, said in a September 5 report.
"High mobile internet and ecommerce penetration, and an underdeveloped traditional financial market will drive growth," Leung said.
Mobile pay is growing so rapidly in mainland China that as a foreigner I sometimes found it difficult to complete basic transactions without it.
When I tried to pay at a Beijing McDonald`s on a late night, the only payment options were China`s Union Pay credit card system, Apple Pay or WeChat Pay and Alipay.
As an American visitor without a Chinese bank account, I wasn`t able to find a way to use those systems and the store clerk wouldn`t take my cash.
"Cash is accepted in all McDonald`s restaurants across China.
After our investigation, we believe this is an isolated case that happened during night shift change, and thus, all cash counters were temporarily closed," a McDonald`s China Customer Care Center told me in an email.
Taxis were also nearly impossible to hail in Beijing due to the rise of Didi, a ride-hailing app that bought Uber`s China operations in a deal worth $35 billion last summer.
Again, Didi was linked through WeChat and I couldn`t use it without a Chinese bank account.
When I finally did get a taxi, the driver gave me a fake 50 yuan bill in change.
Several stores also claimed three of my 100 yuan bills from a New York money exchange were counterfeit.
If I could participate in the cashless society, I would not have lost about $50.