Top 10 mobile apps by monthly active users in China

[Dungeness]

Where do you live?

As an example here's just the supermarket chains near me that accept Apple Pay
Wegmans
Shaws
Star Market
Bj's Wholesale
Whole Foods
soon to be MarketBasket

I have 5 chains within a few miles of me and you have NONE near you???

Some nation-wide franchise stores in my neighborhood like Walgreen may accept Apply Pay or Google Wallet, but I have never seen any one using them. May be I simply do not go there often. It takes NFC, but lots of low end smartphone sold in the US do not have that. I think it is different from Alipay. Alipay uses wireless on-line payment, much like we use paypal with eBay. @AndrewJin am I right about Alipay?

So essentially, we are talking about two different things here:

Apple Pay and Google Wallet are more like bank card alternative that can be used with equipped business; and Alipay is more like e-cash, that can be used with business or anyone with an Alipay account and a smartphone.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Some nation-wide franchise stores in my neighborhood like Walgreen may accept Apply Pay or Google Wallet, but I have never seen any one using them. May be I simply do not go there often. It takes NFC, but lots of low end smartphone sold in the US do not have that. I think it is different from Alipay. Alipay uses wireless on-line payment, much like we use paypal with eBay. @AndrewJin am I right about Alipay?

Well certainly credit cards are universally accepted everywhere. Whether you use a credit card or use your phone it isn't going to make much of a difference in the end. You still pay the same. So people aren't going to trip all over themselves to make sure they leave their credit cards at home and only use their phone. So other than a "hey that's cool" it isn't all that spectacular. There is an extra safety layer though of not having the retailer store your credit card number somewhere.

So "yay" to mobile payments...we'll see what the next fad is.

Now all they have to do is accept Apple Pay at some of those places that force you to insert an EMV credit card and WAIT around 10 seconds for the transaction to finish. I think Target is the place that now does this. It used to be about 2 seconds.

Argh!! The dreadfully slow EMV reader!

 

[GS Zhou]

Where do you live?

As an example here's just the supermarket chains near me that accept Apple Pay
Wegmans
Shaws
Star Market
Bj's Wholesale
Whole Foods
soon to be MarketBasket

I have 5 chains within a few miles of me and you have NONE near you???

I live in Shanghai. Almost all stores in the city, small or large (incl. the convenient stores), accept Alipay. Below is my Alipay history at the convenient stores, 12 times, 231 CNY in total.

I bought a Huawei Watch recently. Now I could do the Alipay via the HUAWEI watch.
(I hide the payment information on the watch screen)

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I live in Shanghai. Almost all stores in the city, small or large (incl. the convenient stores), accept Alipay. Below is my Alipay history at the convenient stores, 12 times, 231 CNY in total.
View attachment 287920

I bought a Huawei Watch recently. Now I could do the Alipay via the HUAWEI watch.
(I hide the payment information on the watch screen)
View attachment 287921

So my question would be..
1) Before Alipay came out what percentage of those stores do you believe accepted credit cards?
2) Of those stores that accepted credit cards what percentage of customers do you believe actually used them instead of cash.

 

[AndrewJin]

I live in Shanghai. Almost all stores in the city, small or large (incl. the convenient stores), accept Alipay. Below is my Alipay history at the convenient stores, 12 times, 231 CNY in total.
View attachment 287920

I bought a Huawei Watch recently. Now I could do the Alipay via the HUAWEI watch.
(I hide the payment information on the watch screen)
View attachment 287921

This is my convenient stores report!
I should have used more!
But now I do online shopping more, including buying fruit, vinegar and tissue.

 

[AndrewJin]

Some nation-wide franchise stores in my neighborhood like Walgreen may accept Apply Pay or Google Wallet, but I have never seen any one using them. May be I simply do not go there often. It takes NFC, but lots of low end smartphone sold in the US do not have that. I think it is different from Alipay. Alipay uses wireless on-line payment, much like we use paypal with eBay. @AndrewJin am I right about Alipay?

So essentially, we are talking about two different things here:

Apple Pay and Google Wallet are more like bank card alternative that can be used with equipped business; and Alipay is more like e-cash, that can be used with business or anyone with an Alipay account and a smartphone.

Yes, it is much more than a substitute of credit card. It seems that US has not really entered the era of E-commerce from what I have learnt here. The notion of e-commerce is still too narrow there.

 

[GS Zhou]

So my question would be..
1) Before Alipay came out what percentage of those stores do you believe accepted credit cards?
2) Of those stores that accepted credit cards what percentage of customers do you believe actually used them instead of cash.

Q1: credit cards acceptance was almost 100% before the birth of Alipay.

Q2: nowadays, via my observation, at the convinent stores, 40% paid via Alipay, 50% via cash, 10% via credit card. But it's my observation only.

 

[Dungeness]

So my question would be..
1) Before Alipay came out what percentage of those stores do you believe accepted credit cards?
2) Of those stores that accepted credit cards what percentage of customers do you believe actually used them instead of cash.

I think many small business simply bypassed POS stage and leap-frogged into Alipay.

Yes, it is much more than a substitute of credit card. It seems that US has not really entered the era of E-commerce from what I have learnt here. The notion of e-commerce is still too narrow there.

OK, let me sum up the ways to use Alipy:

1. On-line shopping, in place of Bank Account or Paypal
2. Store Shopping in place of credit card
3. E-cash, transmit money to anyone with an Alipay Account
4. ?

 

[Shotgunner51]

Shanghai tops Alipay spending list
SHANGHAI residents spent more on average than those of any other Chinese provincial-level region in 2015 on Alipay, the country’s largest online payment platform, according to a new report.

Average individual spending in the financial hub was 104,155 yuan (US$15,836) on Alipay last year, the highest in the country, according to the report, released yesterday by Ant Financial, Alibaba’s financial service affiliate, which operates Alipay.

Thanks for this very useful info, I will tell my wife she spends way above Shanghai average!

Cos I am the one paying for the bills ... sad.

 

[AndrewJin]

I think many small business simply bypassed POS stage and leap-frogged into Alipay.




OK, let me sum up the ways to use Alipy:

1. On-line shopping, in place of Bank Account or Paypal
2. Store Shopping in place of credit card
3. E-cash, transmit money to anyone with an Alipay Account
4. ?

4, providing financial products
5, imbedded credit rating
6, didi car, similar to Uber(car, text, luxurious car, hire another driver)
etc.

Q1: credit cards acceptance was almost 100% before the birth of Alipay.

Q2: nowadays, via my observation, at the convinent stores, 40% paid via Alipay, 50% via cash, 10% via credit card. But it's my observation only.

Remember 12.12 50% discount day?!

Every time when I am in a high-speed railway station, I will buy a magazine (usually Chinese National Geography).
And I always pay with Alipay, 20yuan>>>>14-15 yuan.

Restaurants in the waiting room of HSR Station also provide pretty good discounts if u use Alipay or Wechat.

Thanks for this very useful info, I will tell my wife she spends way above Shanghai average!

Cos I am the one paying for the bills ... sad.

Check her Alipay 2015 report!
U will be shocked!

 

[cirr]

I am definitely not a fan of WeChat. Every time i start it this annoying loading page appears. It takes only 1,5s i know but its very short but still too long because i am used to Whatsapp and Telegramm that they have almost no loading time if you open them. If i got a message i open it and there it is. But this WeChat... holy FÜkk! Also its too overloaded for my opinion.

Strange。

WeChat App on my phone starts always instantly, requring not even a shade of loading time.

They'll collect the pot and clean my place later that day or u can call them the next day.
Delivery is free!!!

And I chose the cheap food most of the time!View attachment 287835
View attachment 287836 View attachment 287837

Watch your weight!

 

[AndrewJin]

Thanks for this very useful info, I will tell my wife she spends way above Shanghai average!

Cos I am the one paying for the bills ... sad.

Check her Alipay 2015 report!
U will be shocked!

Strange。

WeChat App on my phone starts always instantly, requring not even a shade of loading time.



Watch your weight!

Sorry man, lunch in a small food mart.

Milk tea from HK
@Chinese-Dragon

Then dessert in a Wuhan Metro-affiliated food court.

Save me Almighty Confucius!

 

[GS Zhou]

Everyone use Whatsapp here. No one use other messengers even Viber or Line. This is why we only have Whatsapp as choice. But I think Wechat is more secure than Whatsapp..

WeChat is more than a tool for communication. Just show you more Wechat applications.

• Real time traffic information from the street cameras

traffic jam in Shanghai, the picture taken at Jan. 18, 17:53pm, 2016, or five minutes before I sent out this message.

• Arrival time of city buses

the picture shows the next bus (plate number B-D8740) is two stops away, and will arrive at the specified stop in about 3 minutes.

• 

 

[AndrewJin]

WeChat is more than a tool for communication. Just show you more Wechat applications.

• Real time traffic information from the street cameras

traffic jam in Shanghai, the picture taken at Jan. 18, 17:53pm, 2016, or five minutes before I sent out this message.
View attachment 287989

• Arrival time of city buses

the picture shows the next bus (plate number B-D8740) is two stops away, and will arrive at the specified stop in about 3 minutes.

• View attachment 287990

First time know Wechat has real-time bus function!
I'll try it next time.
I am now using Baidu map for bus.

Next bus is 4 stops away, second is 7 stops away, third bus is 8 stops away.
And I know where I can transfer to subway line1/3.

 

[kuge]

Strange。

WeChat App on my phone starts always instantly, requring not even a shade of loading time.

i think if the mobile processing power is fast & has ample internal memories loading is almost instantly though it is there.