MasterCard sees double-digit growth in China on e-commerce
Domestic market has long been dominated by state-backed China UnionPay
Global payment operator MasterCard sees double-digit annual growth in credit card transaction volumes in mainland China, lifted by the booming e-commerce industry in the world’s second-largest economy, a senior executive said on Monday.
The mainland’s plan to open up its domestic transactions market to foreign companies such as MasterCard would be a “game-changer”, MasterCard Asia-Pacific co-president Ling Hai said on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Manila.
MasterCard’s current business on the mainland is mostly handling cross-border transactions when international travellers visit China or when Chinese cardholders go overseas. The domestic market has long been dominated by state-backed China UnionPay.
“That’s going to change with China opening up. We will be able to process domestic transactions just like a domestic national player,” Ling said, adding that the timeline for such opening up remained unclear.
“If you truly gain full access and get it right, China is a game-changer,” he said. “China is the future in terms of consumer market. It will contribute a great deal in terms of spending and volume.”
Underscoring the potential of China’s consumers, Alibaba’s total value of goods transacted during its Singles’ Day shopping festival on November 11 reached 91.2 billion yuan (HK$111.2 billion).