Have you ever tried living a whole day without cash? With a smart phone, it is easy for ordinary people to do so in most parts of China, even when public transportation is involved. In fact, China's mobile payment apps are expanding their reaches in the global market as internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent seek to promote their e-payment tools overseas.
While Wechat Pay has been used in twenty countries and regions including Japan and the Republic of Korea, Alipay offers payment choices for shopping, transport and sightseeing in thirty-eight countries and regions. Wechat can deal with transactions (交易) in thirteen currencies, while Alipay supports settlements in twenty-seven currencies. Consumers in altogether twenty-four countries can get their tax refunds through Alipay, and the app is available in more than sixty overseas airports to offer various services. Besides promoting apps overseas, Alibaba's Ant Financial has partnered with India's PayTM since 2015 to help the latter build a local mobile payment platform and control risks.
What is certain is that the growth of China's mobile payment is driven by improved Internet facilities, technological innovation (变革) as well as a friendly business environment. After successes in online shopping, mobile payments expanded into stores and restaurants in and outside China. The trend has made China the world's largest mobile payment market.
