Source: Inkstone News
In China, mobile payments are used to pay for almost everything from $0.25 steamed buns at a takeout joint to sending prisoners money, highlighting the huge gap that exists between this system and the payment habits of 140 million annual tourists from overseas, who may be more used to cash or credit cards. Inkstone is owned by Alibaba, whose affiliate Ant Financial operates Alipay.
But will providing access be enough to convert tourists to start scanning QR codes?
Over the past few days, Inkstone interviewed 10 foreign tourists as well as shop owners operating in tourist hotspots in Beijing.
Out of the 10 visitors, only one person was aware of the recent changes and was using mobile payment.
Most of the others said they were open to trying the apps, while a few said they would stick to cash.
Derrick Leggett, 47, from Kansas, was the only person using the service. He uses mobile payments all the time in the US, and said he liked replicating the experience in China. He figured out how to access Chinese payment apps before they left the US.
Compared to China, the US is prehistoric in mobile payments, he said, standing outside the famed Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing.
A frequent international business traveler, Leggett said he prefers to pay with phones and said the US lags behind China in terms of wider adoption. However, he still carries cash in China because, he says, the payment apps sometimes fail in areas with low internet signals.
But other travelers, like the Portos of Brazil, found the system difficult to work with, even though they were excited to try it.
Before arriving in China, Edgard, 70, and his wife Simone, 59, exchanged $500 into local currency. They tried to link their bank accounts with WeChat but failed, so they mentally planned on using credit cards for most of the two-week trip.
Little did they know that, over the course of three days, only one restaurant was able to process their card. They found it almost impossible to use credit cards and had to take out a lot more cash from ATMs.
Mrs Porto said China should find a way to make life easier for tourists to pay like locals do.
In the bar district of Houhai in Beijing, a popular spot among tourists, a bar manager told Inkstone that most foreign customers pay in cash.
For them, it is cash, cash and cash. Very few foreigners are using mobile payments. I have only seen South Koreans used WeChat and a few expats that have been here for awhile, said Sun Rui, manager of the Golden Titan Cafe and Bar.
Sun has worked at the bar for 13 years and said no bars or restaurants in the district were able to process foreign credit cards, citing a government regulation.
Jefferey Towson, professor of investment at Peking University, told Inkstone, It was a growing loophole as more of your life and livelihood in China are going through the phones. Im glad they are tackling it.
Towson said China was the first country to widely adopt mobile payments about five years ago because other payment options, like credit cards, were unpopular.
Initially it was just a bigger improvement for the Chinese, from cash to phones. Over time, it is slowly playing out to be more of a superior solution in the digital age, Towson said.
A few years ago, mobile payments were a trendy way to buy things, but as the internet has developed in China, the system has made cash seem inconvenient and burdensome.
Towson said that for the past two years, China has been leading the charge to promote mobile payments across Asian countries, including South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan and India.
Towson said the US and Europe would lag in adopting mobile payments as they have little incentive to give up their credit card system.
The more interesting question to me is: Which other nations are going to follow the China path on mobile payments? he said.
If mobile payments become more commonly used outside China, then tourists may find it much less challenging when visiting the country that popularized it.
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