In China, Mobile First Everywhere

Photo: A customized shared bike launched by ofo, a leading company in China’s bike-sharing industry, and Universal Picture to promote the film Despicable Me 3

Back to China after spending three years in New York, I thought I was going to have a reverse culture shock. But it’s actually more of a tech shock. Mobile has become a new lifestyle and I found I no longer need cash or card to shop around. Wechat alone is enough.

Three years ago, Wechat was only dominating people’s life through its social media platform, but today it’s also taking over the market by the mobile payment system.

The way it works is that you can simply scan a vendor’s QR code and then type the amount of money needed and transfer to him, or you can have the vendor scan your QR code and deduct the amount of money you should pay automatically.

Photo: A vendor’s QR code in a farmer market in Beijing

Photo: A user’s QR code scanned by the vendor

Also, most apps would allow you to pay through Wechat. You can also access to a range of services within Wechat itself.

Photo:Payment options for an in-app purchase

Photo: Third-party services offered by Wechat

Among them, shared bike is my favorite one. It allows you to pick up and drop off the bike anywhere by just scanning the QR code on the bike. The industry is booming this year and you can see people ride bikes everywhere in the city because of its convenience, significantly easing the traffic. It’s also cheap, taking less than one quarter to ride for 1.5 hours!

Of course, to make all these happen, you have to first link your Wechat to a bank account and have money there. Then you’ll find yourself desperately need high-speed data and enough capacity to download all kinds of apps.

#Mobile #China #Technology #Wechat #Digital