A Western Diet with Chinese Spices – The Specificities of Payments in China

Overall, in China the payment system is less developed and electronic payment methods are less widely used than in European countries, while in this regard China is also relatively underdeveloped among the BRICS countries.1 That said, data indicate that in accordance with China’s economic growth since the turn of the millennium, major changes have also been taking place in this field. Although it enjoyed a monopoly in the country until recently, the Chinese payment card system now competes with international card companies, and innovative mobile payment solutions are also popular. This latter is also remarkable because despite the steady growth in the number of people using mobile payment solutions in Western states, even the most developed payments systems have so far failed to convince a wide range of consumers to use the latest technologies. By contrast, in China a significant group of consumers has skipped over arguably traditional payment methods such as credit transfers or card payments, and switched from cash usage directly to mobile payment solutions. This has also caused the role of banks to become less central, and that of other payment service providers more prominent, which may also significantly influence the situation of the banking sector going forward.