bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Zen Soo

Celia Chen

The QR code, a bar code system first invented by a Japanese automotive parts maker to keep track of components, found widespread popularity in China through the use of mobile payments.
But as the familiar square mosaic gains greater popularity outside China, the tech giants that helped to drive its adoption are already moving away from the app-based payment method to something even more portable: your face.
In different cities around China, merchants from supermarkets to bakeries have adopted facial recognition payments technology from Alibaba-affiliated Ant Financial and Tencent’s WeChat Pay to make the payments process as frictionless as possible. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Why? Because face recognition technology brings the next step in payments convenience for consumers and also has the potential to bring in a whole new wave of less tech-savvy users, such as the elderly or those who struggle to read and write.
On the business front, facial recognition payments are also expected to improve efficiency.




Alipay first rolled out its Dragonfly facial recognition system – an upgrade of its Smile-to-Pay system – in December last year, and since then has expanded it to over 300 cities in China.
Not to be outdone, WeChat Pay pushed out its device three months later, capable of scanning both a customer’s face as well as QR codes for payment.
WeChat declined to provide statistics on its facial recognition payments coverage for this article.
Alipay and six mobile wallets launch joint service in Europe
Walk into a CP Lotus supermarket in Beijing today, and you’ll see cashiers equipped with Alipay-branded tablets. Customers can have their purchases rung up by the cashier, and if they choose facial recognition to pay, all they need to do is look at the tablet’s camera.
In seconds, the system recognises who the user is and money is deducted from their Alipay account. Gone are the days of fumbling around for your smartphone, opening the right app and navigating to the QR code to make payments.
“Facial recognition payment is very convenient, it saves me time as I do not need to pick up my phone to look for my QR code, all I have to do is look at the camera,” said David Wang, a 30 year-old games developer whose first experience with Alipay’s facial-recognition payment technology was in a fruit store in the hi-tech, southern coastal city of Shenzhen.

Facial recognition payments are more frictionless than current mobile payment systems, primarily because no device is needed to complete the transaction, says Tiffany Lung, retail analyst at Tofugear, a Hong Kong-based retail solutions company.
“Facial recognition payment not only eradicates the need for smartphones, it also provides more convenience, offering consumers another way to make payments,” said Lung.
The battle for facial recognition payments supremacy also comes as both WeChat Pay and Alipay find themselves neck-and-neck in China’s hotly-contested payments market.
Tencent partners with Line in Japan on mobile payments
As the two leading payments providers on the mainland, WeChat Pay and Alipay jointly accounted for over 90 per cent of China’s mobile payments last year, according to China Internet Watch.
On the mainland, WeChat Pay benefits from being baked into the ubiquitous WeChat messaging app (which boasts over a billion users globally), and thus has a penetration rate of 89.2 per cent, ahead of Alipay’s 69.5 per cent, according to market research firm Ipsos.
But when it comes to transaction amounts, Alipay and WeChat Pay are almost equal, with WeChat Pay accounting for 45 per cent of total transaction amounts and Alipay for 46 per cent, according to Ipsos data.




Since facial recognition payment is designed to be seamless and frictionless, Alipay’s aggressive push to get more users to sign up for it can be seen as a strategy to pull ahead of WeChat Pay, in the hope that users will shift from QR code mobile payments to the more convenient facial recognition system.
“The battle is currently on between which biometric point-of-sale system retailers will install and offer to their consumers,” said Tofugear’s Lung.
“So depending on which solution is available, naturally the stickiness and user engagement with the respective ecosystem will increase as customers get used to the convenience of each system.”
Businesses who install facial recognition payments systems also benefit, due to increased efficiency and even a reduction in manpower.
People’s Daily article says payments giants must tighten “safety valve”
Alipay, for example, offers solutions such as vending machines and self-checkout machines that both use face-scans to process payments – thereby reducing the number of cashiers required at any given time, while reducing the amount of time it takes to complete a transaction.
But while facial recognition payments might seem like the latest technology trend in China’s tech-enabled society, it may serve yet another purpose – helping to bring less technologically-savvy users on board.

China may be the most populous country in the world with 1.4 billion people, but only 829 million users, or 60 per cent of the population, are connected to the internet, according to the China Internet Report 2019, co-authored by the Post, its sister news site Abacus and venture capitalist Edith Yeung.
When it comes to mobile payments, that number dips even further to just 40 per cent of China’s population – or 583 million users – paying with their smartphones.
Of the 562 million Chinese still not connected to the internet at the end of last year, more than 87 per cent cited lack of computer skills and inability to use pinyin as the main reasons preventing them from going online, according to a February report from the China Internet Network Information Center.
So while China is already ahead of the global curve when it comes to the mobile internet, large swathes of the population are still not connected, which is a problem.
Older Chinese tourists drive mobile payments on holiday overseas
In China today, there’s an app for everything – whether it’s buying things online, hailing a taxi, or the using the ubiquitous WeChat messaging superapp to order food on-demand or pay bills online.
In fact, China has gone so digital that some restaurants do not even use physical menus any more – customers simply scan a QR code on their table and place their orders on their mobile.
“For elderly users who struggle with QR code payments, they would find facial recognition an easier payment method,” said Lung, the retail analysy, adding that such methods allow payments providers to tap into user groups previously difficult to reach.
To be sure, facial recognition payments are still not yet a default method of payment across China, and are more commonly found in supermarkets than in restaurants or mom-and-pop shops.
But the games developer, Wang, who pays for fruit via facial recognition in Shenzhen, has no doubt that biometric payments will soon be the norm.
“I think that facial recognition is the future for payments in China,” he said.
“From cash to credit cards, and then to QR codes, history has shown that whichever method is the most convenient, will become the trend.”


As China turns towards facial recognition payments, are QR codes on their way out?

Facial recognition is replacing QR codes as the way to digitally pay in China. Image: SCMP

Big screen shows the facial technology at Megvii (or Face++), a company focusing on delveopment of facial recognition technology, is pictured during an interview in the company in Beijing on Monday May 13, 2019. 13MAY19 SCMP/Simon Song

LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 05: An Alibaba employee demonstrates 'Smile to Pay', an automatic payment system that authorize payment via facial recognition, at the Alibaba booth during CES 2017 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on January 5, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs through January 8 and features 3,800 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 165,000 attendees. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP

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In cities around China, vendors from supermarkets to bakeries have adopted facial recognition payments technology


Facial recognition tech promises next wave of payments convenience for consumers and has potential to include less tech-savvy users, such as the elderly.
