Going cash free: why China is light years ahead in the online payment revolution
We find out if it’s possible to live in Shanghai without paper money or bank cards and discover how online payments have dethroned cash as king in digital revolution that’s being led by two big players – Alipay and Tenpay
“Zhifubao or Weixin,” asks the waitress. It’s a question that catches me by surprise because I was expecting a different one: “cash or card?” It has been a simple meal at Yershari, a Xinjiang chain restaurant in Shanghai’s Hongkou Plaza, and now as I eye my wallet the waitress gestures towards the cashier by the door. I can settle up the old-fashioned way over there, I’m told – the payment device she’s carrying scans QR codes. “Most of our clients use their phones now,” she says, with a shrug.
China is leading the world in online payments. Buying goods and services using smartphone apps that provide mobile-payment services has caught on here like nowhere else; the rate of adoption is dizzying in a country that even state media acknowledges is hurtling towards a cashless society.
When I read on Weibo that beggars in the city are using Alipay and WeChat Pay (Zhifubao and Weixin, respectively, in Putonghua) to collect handouts, I decide it’s time to find out if it’s possible to live in Shanghai without paper money or bank cards.
I’m already hooked up to Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay. They are linked to my bank account, which funds an online e-wallet. I use their services rarely, only for web purchases. But you can’t engage with the amazing universe of Taobao – the gargantuan shopping platform of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (owner of Alipay and the South China Morning Post) – if you don’t have a way to pay for its gazillion products. Where else can you pick up a cast-metal Communist Party emblem, a plastic replica of an ancient Chinese opera mask and a David Beckham sex doll all in the same place?
Alipay and WeChat Pay let you shop for goods and services on the internet and in the real “bricks and mortar” world. To shop on websites through a desktop computer, log on to your Alipay or WeChat Pay account and verify your transactions using a password. Alternatively, scan the QR code that appears on the payment page with your smartphone. If you’re browsing with a smartphone, pay using your password or a fingerprint scan, or by screenshotting the QR code on the payment page and scanning that.
Back in the real world, at larger shops and restaurants, simply press the “pay” button in your smartphone app and a QR code appears for the vendor to scan using a point of sale (POS) device, like the one the waitress in the restaurant waved at me in vain. Smaller stores and vendors with no POS device often print and display their QR codes, which the customer can scan on their smartphone, setting the amount to be transferred to the vendor’s e-wallet. Vendors that have not printed their QR code can use their own smartphone to scan a QR code produced by the customer’s smartphone app after entering the amount to be transferred. Transfers between individuals in this way are simple and commission free. WeChat also allows seamless transfers between contacts using the app, which is particularly convenient when, say, going Dutch at a restaurant.
In the interest of going beyond the usual “a day without cash” experiment, I begin with some of the toughest nuts to crack. Can I use Alipay or Tenpay (which incorporates both WeChat Pay and QQ Wallet) to settle my utility bills?
