China is All About Contactless

In China, cash is no longer king. According to a report from the People's Bank of China, cash transactions have fallen from 52% of all payments in 2012 to just 40% in 2016.

The reasons for this shift are many, but the most important one is the rise of mobile payments. Alipay and WeChat Pay, the two most popular mobile payment platforms in China, have taken the country by storm. In just a few years, they have amassed hundreds of millions of users and processed trillions of dollars in transactions.

The convenience of mobile payments has made them the preferred choice for many Chinese consumers. Paying with your phone is faster and easier than using cash, and it doesn't require you to carry around a wad of bills. Mobile payments have also been helped by the spread of smartphone ownership and internet access in China.

According to a report from the China Internet Network Information Center, there are now over 730 million internet users in China, and over 90% of them are mobile internet users. This shift away from cash is sure to have a profound impact on the Chinese economy. For one thing, it will make it easier for the government to track and collect taxes. It will also make it easier for businesses to accept payments from customers who are not carrying any cash.

Of course, not everyone is happy about this change. There are those who worry about the security of mobile payments, and there are also those who simply prefer the old-fashioned way of doing things. But there's no doubt that mobile payments are here to stay, and that cash is on its way out in China.