In China, WeChat and Alipay, which is run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Group, dominate mobile payments last year, Alipay also began trialing digital yuan payments. Previously, users could get the app on an invite-only basis.
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That will enable anyone in those areas to download and sign up to use the digital currency. At the same time, use of e-CNY lags far behind Alipay and WeChat Pay, which together control over 90 per cent of the mobile payments market. This week, the PBOC launched an e-CNY app for users in certain regions and cities in China. As of December 31, 2021, there had been more than 8.0851 million eCNY (China's Central Bank Digital Currency or CBDC) pilot scenarios, reaching 261 million personal digital wallets and a total transaction of 87.565 billion yuan (US13.78 billion), according to Zou Lan, director of the financial market department of the People's Bank of China at a conference on 18 January 2022.
To date, the People's Bank of China, which issues the digital yuan or e-CNY, has done limited trials in certain cities via lotteries where the central bank has handed out small amounts of the currency to some citizens.īut there are now signs that the PBOC is looking to expand usage of the digital yuan, despite no concrete date for a nationwide rollout. WeChat Pay has over 800 million monthly active users. Consumers, however, have found few advantages to using the e-CNY in a country where Tencent Holdings' WeChat Pay and Ant Group's Alipay are already dominant forms of payment. Food delivery app Ele.me and video service Youku have been integrating WeChat Pay recently. Many businesses are entirely dependent on Alipay or WeChat Pay for revenue. Alibaba already has its own payment service Alipay, run by its affiliate Ant Group. Mentioning this, Chen Ling, a 26-year-old staffer at a booth selling Palace Museum’s souvenirs, said: People are already so used to WeChat Pay and Alipay, so many are reluctant to get digital yuan all of a. (See Chart 5.) In turn, Alipay and WeChat Pay underpin twin ecosystems of services spanning shopping, food delivery, ride hailing, healthcare, insurance and wealth management. However, considering Chinese residents are used to making daily transactions using Alipay and WeChat Pay, this could be a challenge. It can also be used for purchases online. The Alipay and WeChat Pay duopoly processes 94 of third-party mobile payments. WeChat Pay allows users to show merchants a barcode on their phone to pay for items in store.