A foreigner’s life in Beijing without access to Alipay or Wechat Pay is like a fish out of water. Here’s my experience
- Alipay and WeChat Pay say they have opened up their vast ecosystems to foreigners, but access to functions is limited, Business reporter Louise Moon finds
- Cash is no longer king, as life runs through screens and mobile payments platforms
“You might not have to make that trip to the bank after all,” Rob, a friend, messaged me over WeChat the other day. He attached a press release saying Alipay had launched an international version of its mobile payments platform for visitors to China.
Named “Tour Pass”, the app can be used for up to 90 days and could prove handy for me – I had moved from Hong Kong to Beijing for three months just over a month ago.
The last time I lived in Beijing, five years ago while studying at Peking University, cash was still currency, shared bikes did not exist and people did not have their morning Starbucks delivered via an app.
Since then China has transformed into an almost cashless society at an exceptionally fast pace. According to China’s central bank, People’s Bank of China, the volume of domestic mobile payment transactions reached 277.4 trillion yuan (US$41.51 trillion) in 2018, up more than 28 times compared with five years earlier.
Still, I told Rob I wasn’t sure I could be bothered with the hassle of setting up a bank account, figuring it was easier to go without and withdraw from my Hong Kong account.
But the realisation quickly hit – life here functions completely through screens and mostly through two apps, WeChat, with its mobile payment arm WeChat Pay, and Alipay. Almost all payments are done via mobile phones, and even getting into the office building requires scanning a QR code on WeChat, the all-encompassing social-media app with 1 billion monthly users founded by technology giant Tencent Holdings.