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In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

nytimes.com

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Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#41

Post by bsder »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #15

I think this article hit the nail on the head when it pointed out that being ahead of the curve at one time (with Japan and their advanced flip phones in the early 2000s) can make it harder to adopt the next big advance because what you have is already "good enough". Thus, in the US, I suspect that mobile payments haven't taken off as much because they are only very slightly faster to use than a credit card, as oppos…

> Thus, in the US, I suspect that mobile payments haven't taken off as much because they are only very slightly faster to use than a credit card

Mobile payments haven't taken off in the US because the big players are all fighting to the death in the space.

I suspect that the space was equally as fractured until the big players in China simply got the "Party Blessing" and that was the end of the discussion.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#42

Post by monocasa »

frozenport wrote: post #35

Fucking non-sense, American's strive to create products that are different. The Chinese stereotype is to copy those. The copies are often not cost equivalent won't perform the same function as the original. Further it is often done with the full intent of tricking people, for example knock off Apple stores, Italian clothing etc. In absolute terms the average Chinese person can't afford higher quality items.

That's exactly what was said about Germany in the 1880s, and Japanese goods in the 1960s. It's the normal progression of truly developing economies.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#43

Post by EZ-E »

chime wrote: post #30
EZ-E wrote: post #6

Can confirm, in most supermarket, paying take literally one second. You pull out your phone and show your Alipay/WeChat QR code, the cashier scans it and 1 second later it's done. People paying in cash is a small minority Speeding up lines, they also can have more clients for less cashiers In France, most people pay with a bank card, the rest with cash. The process is longer and less user friendly

Does your QR code change from one transaction to next?

Yes. Also if you keep it open for some time, the code will change automaticly

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#44

Post by seanmcdirmid »

tsukaisute wrote: post #31
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mobile payments haven't taken off in the west because credit cards have worked well enough. In china, lots of small-scale businesses lack POS terminals while Chinese banks put the burden of proof in case of fraud on the card user, rather than the merchant as in the west. Using a credit card in china is an absolute PITA. Since returning to the states from china, I've been happily surprised that I can just tap my credi…

Just wish everyone would hop onboard quicker. We still need a lot of consumer education. For example, Apple Pay works great at Whole Foods. I use it every time. Other people in line painstakingly pay with credit cards, despite holding an iPhone in their other hand. The new chip cards take longer to process, even, 5 seconds or so.

Chips are unnaturally slow in the states, they are pretty fast in Europe.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#45

Post by tanilama »

tristanj wrote: post #17
ajiang wrote: post #13

I had the most surreal experience in the Shenzhen airport the other day. I was out of cash, with only my credit cards and Android pay. There was no place in the entire airport that I could pay with Visa or Mastercard - the first time I felt truly helpless in China. Uber didn't work either. I was forced to set up WeChat pay, which works absolutely everywhere.

Not everywhere takes WeChat pay. AliPay is slightly more common. Businesses prefer AliPay for their lower interchange fees. Though I'd estimate 80-90% of places in cities take one or the other.

It is Shenzhen, where Tencent's HQ locates, I would say WeChat pay is more common there.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#46

Post by EZ-E »

yoz-y wrote: post #19
EZ-E wrote: post #6

Can confirm, in most supermarket, paying take literally one second. You pull out your phone and show your Alipay/WeChat QR code, the cashier scans it and 1 second later it's done. People paying in cash is a small minority Speeding up lines, they also can have more clients for less cashiers In France, most people pay with a bank card, the rest with cash. The process is longer and less user friendly

Take out card, put on NFC reader, get out. One problem is the 20€ limit though.

Last time I was in France, there is not that many NFC terminals yet. Also both of my french cards don't support it

Also 20€ limit is fairly deal breaker, doing groceries will often be above that. Even a 2 person MacDonalds is probably something like 22€

Meanwhile even vending machines can scan your QR code in China

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#47

Post by jccalhoun »

I had heard of WeChat and AliPay but didn't know how it worked. It is quite similar to what Walmart does with their Walmart Pay https://www.walmart.com/cp/walmart-pay/3205993 and what a number of retailers tried to do with CurrenctC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Customer_Exchange

CurrentctC never made it out of test marketing and I don't think Walmart Pay is taking off.

The difference is that these two are from big retailers and the Chinese versions are from apps or online retailers.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#48

Post by kuschku »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #22
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing this has come about because VISA and Mastercard are US companies, where as WeChat is Chinese owned?

No, this is very strange actually. At least Starbucks would take credit cards, and you should be able to find an ATM that takes your USA-based ATM card. Never had this problem before. I did feel screwed when I arrived in he Netherlands thinking my unionpay card to work, just to find out it was one of the countries besides India where it didn't. Thankfully, I could find some place that took credit cards...but I was fr…

Germany also doesn't really take credit cards.

Well, didn't.

The EU limited fees for credit cards to 0.125% recently, and while EC (now bought by MasterCard and called Maestro for SEPA) is still cheaper, credit cards start being affordable for merchants. But almost none support it yet.

And Google still hasn't launched Android Pay, despite every ALDI having NFC. I'd prefer if there was a local NFC payment option actually.

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#49

Post by EZ-E »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #14
ajiang wrote: post #13

I had the most surreal experience in the Shenzhen airport the other day. I was out of cash, with only my credit cards and Android pay. There was no place in the entire airport that I could pay with Visa or Mastercard - the first time I felt truly helpless in China. Uber didn't work either. I was forced to set up WeChat pay, which works absolutely everywhere.

I'm guessing this has come about because VISA and Mastercard are US companies, where as WeChat is Chinese owned?

China has Unionpay. Because merchants don't often have terminals, and because paying with phones is more convenient, people just link their card to WeChat/Alipay and pay with the apps

Re: In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete

#50

Post by theylon »

Living in China for the past two years - Important thing to remember - in China and in most of South-East Asia the tech boom came at a later stage when smartphones were already prominent. Android + Chinese manufacturing made it possible to produce cheap smart phones. The result is that these countries have completely skipped the laptop phase and went straight to smartphones, most of the population doesn't even know what a laptop is. What the west calls eCommerce (amazon, Ebay etc) is called mCommerce in Asia (Taobao app, JD.com App etc). Asian consumers find it easier and more natural to shop using smartphones rather than laptops like Western consumers.

Oh and yes, When I leave the house I don't even take my wallet, everything is paid using wechat.

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