Alipay sees massive growth in mobile payments in China
Alipay, the "Chinese PayPal," has released a new report on mobile payment use in China and the growth is staggering.
In a story courtesy of China Retail News, Alipay reported that in 2012, the value of payments increased 546 percent year-over-year. The number of consumers using mobile devices to pay increased 223 percent, Alipay reported. More than 4.3 million consumers spent more through a mobile device than through a PC.
According to Alipay, the growth is due to the penetration of mobile devices into China. The report said that in small cities especially, smartphones exceed PCs.
Alipay is a third party payment processor boasting more than 700 million accounts in China (compared with PayPal's 117 million accounts worldwide). It's an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group.
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