Mobile Payment Revolution: China vs US

“The payment market, especially mobile payment, is one of the segments in which China is actually moving much, much faster than the US market. Americans would be surprised at how deep the penetration is for WeChat pay and Alipay in China’s mobile payment business. In the US it’s very hard for you to imagine that you can use your mobile to pay for almost anything in life – taxis, shopping, movie tickets, restaurants, the list is endless. In the US, people still carry dozens of cards in their wallet or purse and they swipe these cards almost everywhere. This is why companies like Square, for example, can do very well in the US because it helps consumers do business with small and medium sized merchants who couldn’t otherwise afford payment terminals.
Remember also that in the US the concentration ratio of the retailers is way higher than in the Chinese market. So this is why, for example, if you look at Apple Pay and even Google’s Android Pay, while they were very advanced technologies there’s huge opposition from the large merchants. Companies like Walmart, Target and Starbucks would rather have their own payment systems.
Apple Pay is definitely not a first mover in China; it’s a sort of a late mover in the market. They have to work very hard to increase their penetration ratio of the payment terminals here. But almost all the grocery stores in China, especially in the big cities, are already occupied by the free bar scanners offered by Tencent and Ali. So there’s a long way to go.” ~ Yu Zhang, CEIBS Prof. of Management

[zerokiryu]

I've used wechat for years to talk to some chinese folk. I help them with their English. A bank card here (how the overwhelming majority of us pay) would finish the payment while you were waiting for that dumb copycat program to start up. Wechat take a very small percentage of money on cash transfers too. Bank card is your money to vendor direct. Other forms are middle men you don't need. Wechat is NOT quicker than our similar forms of pay. And if you're using a bank card, you don't need to worry about it ever losing a charge. And you can hand someone a bank card to go get something without handing over your phone. And if you lose your card, you can go to the bank and get an instant replacement. Try that with a lost or broken phone. Wechat started as a clone (even in appearance) of WhatsApp, and it has grown since by copying everyone else, including of course this online pay, but it's certainly not quick to have to open your phone and then start up wechat, and then make your payment. Its pretty ridiculous. On top of that, if you're not Chinese, its a pretty pointless app for nearly anyone. The poor quality of it's video, audio, and unrealistically slow loading make it a truly awful piece of software, but in China, they don't know any better and they aren't familiar with a million messengers that heavily eclipse it. I know alipay and wechat pay are popular in China. I don't know how this test was performed, but I assure you it's not quick to have to pull out your phone and go through those motions. It doesn't take a long time, but it does take longer and is far less convenient. I talked at length with some Chinese friends on this subject. It's a popular thing in China but rather pointless, slower, and presents potential problems when compared to stabbing a card instead of having to whip out your phone and open wechat. No need for middle men. But if you want to pay with your phone for whatever reason, wechat and alipay barely exist out of China. Since youtube is illegal in China, this message is to the wrong audience.