China’s rising cashless society (2024)

This is a selection of resources on China’s rising cashless society available from the NLB catalogue or the Internet and is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

NLB print and digital resources

China’s fintech explosion: Disruption, innovation, and survival

In rapidly developing China, fintech is taking off amid a backdrop of growing consumption and a large, tech-savvy millennial generation. China’s Fintech Explosion explores the transformative potential of China’s financial-technology industry, covering subsectors such as digital payment systems, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, credit card issuance and internet banks, blockchain finance and virtual currencies, and online insurance.

Retrieved from OverDrive. (myLibrary ID login is required to access this ebook)

Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese society

This ebook provides a balanced and nuanced study of how the WeChat platform interweaves into the fabric of Chinese social and cultural life. It keeps the wider global and national social media landscape in view and compares and contrasts WeChat with Weibo, QQ and other Western social media platforms, including some of their mobile payment systems and their usage trends in China.

China is a pioneer in cashless transactions, propelled by Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay. According to the article’s forecast, around 60 percent of China’s 1.3 billion population will have made a purchase via mobile payment by 2023. As the trend continues, China may soon become a cashless economy, where digital payment methods totally replace cash.

China wants its rural villages to go cashless by 2020

Beijing announced its aim to make mobile payments within easy reach of its rural regions by the end of 2020. Guidelines (in Chinese) to make online financial services more accessible to rural residents have been jointly published by five Chinese regulating bodies including the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance.

The real fight for Chinese mobile payments isn’t taking place in China

Cashless China: Would you use your face to pay?

Facial recognition payments system is the next big thing in China’s cashless payment trend, and using it is very convenient and easy for those who have already tried the system.

This is China: The cashless era is coming

In 2018, a record 277.4 trillion RMB had transacted via mobile payments and as of June 2019, there were 633 million online payment users in China. The leap from cash to mobile payments was accelerated by advanced technologies and a high mobile penetration rate in the country.

China’s great leap to wallet-free living

In China, cash is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. In this video, see how Alipay and WeChat Pay have become the mainstream mode of payment transactions in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where people generally do not use cash for their daily activities at all.

China blazes trail in facial recognition payment systems

No money? No cards? No phone? No problem! Just smile to pay for your purchases at this self-service supermarket at Tianjin, China. Facial recognition payment systems have been rolled out in over 100 Chinese cities by tech-giant Alibaba and are both convenient and safe. The system is designed to read nodal points in human faces which act as one’s facial signature.

China: A digital payments revolution

Alibaba and Tencent have been the main drivers for digital payments via mobile apps in China, particularly with their successful tie-up with retail platforms. In 2017, 890 million unique mobile payment users made around $17 trillion transactions and over a third of consumer payments in China are now cashless.

Payment methods in China: How China became a mobile-first nation

In 2018, around 83 percent of all payments in China were done via mobile phones, and the recent pandemic appears to have boosted online and mobile payment transactions in May 2020. The article also includes tips on how a foreigner can use mobile payment methods to boost their businesses in China.

Digitizing the Chinese New Year

In 2014, a digital hongbao feature was introduced by Tencent, a Chinese multinational conglomerate, as an alternative to the traditional gifting of red packets filled with money by elders to young people during Chinese New Year. From 2014 to 2018, over 769 million people had used this application to send virtual red packets to families and friends during Chinese New Year.

The real fight for Chinese mobile payments isn’t taking place in China

Before the end of 2017, Chinese shoppers will be able to use Baidu’s digital app to make payments at PayPal’s 17 million merchants worldwide, in a tie-up between the American payment company and the Chinese tech giant.

China sets up clearing house for online payment services like AliPay and Tenpay

China has set up a national clearing house for banks and online payment systems in order to route transactions starting from 30 June 2018. This move will help regulators track and monitor the capital flows from online transactions thereby creating a safer Internet payment environment for consumers.

Take a tour of a Hema Supermarket and experience “new retail”

This video introduces the Hema Supermarket in Shanghai, Alibaba’s “new retail” concept that merges online and in-store shopping to provide a seamless and more efficient shopping experience for consumers. Shoppers only need to download a mobile app and use their mobile phones to do the shopping by scanning barcodes to get instant product information.

Source: Alibaba Group

Last updated on Oct 2020

FAQs

Is China becoming a cashless society? ›

“Elderly Chinese still often prefer to pay with cash and some struggle with using mobile payments.” Less than a year ago, state media was lauding China's trajectory towards becoming the world's top country for cashless transactions. Xinhua reported cash had dropped to just 3.7% of the total money in circulation.

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Can I still use cash in China? ›

It's illegal in China to reject cash for purchases, and the central government's crackdown has intensified in the last several years. Regulators have been fining companies such as car dealerships that refuse cash, while state media promotes the paper bill as the "most basic instrument of payment."

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What are the arguments for and against cashless society? ›

A cashless society offers a range of benefits such as convenience, transparency and stability. However, there are concerns about financial exclusion , privacy and security. It has been suggested that disadvantaged groups are most likely to be disproportionately affected by the transition away from cash.

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What is the argument for cashless economy? ›

Cashless society: advantages

One major advantage of going cashless is a significant reduction in crime. When people are handling less cash, bank robberies, burglaries and corruption drop.

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Is America going to a cashless society? ›

The US is moving toward cashless payments, with a substantial increase in the use of mobile wallet apps and contactless cards. A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that payments made using cash accounted for just 18% of all US payments in 2022.

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Which country is 100 cashless? ›

The correct answer is Sweden. Sweden is World's first country to have a cashless economy. In 2023, Sweden is proudly becoming the first cashless nation in the world, with an economy that goes 100 percent digital.

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Is Japan cashless? ›

Even though card payments are becoming increasingly popular, Japan is nowhere near a cashless society. However, how often you'll be using cash depends on where exactly you're travelling to. In some big cities such as Tokyo, you may be able to go completely digital.

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Why did China go cashless? ›

The high rate of internet usage, a supportive regulatory framework and the government's push for a cashless society – with COVID-19 as the impetus to introduce the digital yuan to replace physical bank notes – all contributed to the success of mobile payments in China.

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What does China do with US dollars? ›

But, Chinese companies and their workers need to be paid in China's local currency. This means the Chinese banking system must convert dollars with the central bank, which must then do something with them. The central bank uses these dollars to purchase Treasuries, which earn a stable return.

How long until cashless society? ›

Physical currency isn't becoming obsolete any time soon, so it's important to weigh up your options before deciding to go fully cashless in 2024. Ensuring you can accept some cashless payments though, is essential to keeping with today's trends and customer expectations.

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Why won't a cashless society work? ›

Decreased Monetary Security

But when your money is in digital form, it's vulnerable to hackers and system malfunctions. Plus, any sort of power outage or network problem can make it impossible for you to retrieve your money. In many ways, cash offers a level of monetary security that a cashless system cannot.

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Is cashless economy a success or failure? ›

Less cash will decrease crimes like corruption, hawala transaction, theft cases, etc. A Cashless Society will also increase the transparency in the system.

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How does a cashless society affect the poor? ›

Crucially, this substitution has significant consequences for social inequality: while people with higher incomes typically benefit from cashless payments through easy and frictionless payments and access to short-term credit, people with lower incomes become increasingly dependent on financial services for which they ...

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Who is leading the cashless society? ›

Norways is the most cashless country, with only around 2% of payments being made by cash, and 100% of the population having a bank account.

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Which country will go cashless? ›

With a date set in 2023 to go completely cashless, Sweden is arguably the closest country to achieve this. It is currently not uncommon to see signs that say “No Cash Accepted” in various shops in Sweden.

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Why did China become cashless? ›