China’s third-party online payment market had total transactions of over US$820 billion in Q1 2017, led by Alipay (34.7%) and UnionPay, while mobile payment transactions reached US$2,761.78 billion in China, led by Alipay (53.7%) and Tencent Finance.

The total transactions of China’s third-party online payment market were 5,584.831 billion yuan (US$820.03 billion) in the first quarter of 2017 with an increase of 6.96% QoQ.

Alipay continued to lead China’s online payment market with 34.71% market share by the total transaction in Q1 2017, followed by UnionPay (22.44%) and Tencent Finance (15.37%). The top three institutions combined account for 72.52% of China’s online payment market.

The total transactions of China’s third-party mobile payment market reached 18,809.12 billion yuan (US$2,761.78 bn) with an increase of 46.78% QoQ in Q1 2017.

Alipay has 53.7% market share in China’s mobile payment market in Q1 2017 followed by Tencent Finance (39.51%).

Tencent Finance ranks first in terms of the number of active users in Q1 2017 (841.26 million), followed by Alipay (491.98 million) and Baidu Wallet (68.21 million).

1 in 4 China post-90s consumers use Alipay credit service

Mobile payment has penetrated into every part of daily life in China such as online shopping, taking a taxi, supermarkets and food delivery in particular. About 70% Chinese internet users have ordered foods in a month and about 70% would pay on mobile according to DCCI. Alipay, WeChat Payment and Baidu Wallet have become the payment apps with the highest usage frequency.

45.8% of female internet users and 47.5% of male users ordered foods in 2014 in China according to iResearch, and more Chinese will use the food delivery service with the ever-improving food delivery market in the future.

Only 26.9% would rather pay cash on delivery and 73.1% users will pay online, among which 91.7% tend to pay on smartphones and 8.3% on the PC end. Alipay, WeChat Payment, and Baidu Wallet lead the mobile payment market becoming most frequently used mobile payment instruments.

Daily active users of WeChat totaled 570 million in China in September 2015 according to Tencent, and WeChat payment users are expected to increase by 7% in the next few months. Baidu Wallet is also promising by connecting with large profitable activities and various services with Baidu such as Baidu Library and Baidu Post Bar. However, Alipay may not attract more users considering its high penetration rate.

Alipay is convenient and simple to operate while Baidu Wallet is more secure and preferential. White-collars prefer Baidu Wallet, and second-tier city Chinese users like Baidu Wallet and Alipay better.

Chinese use mobile payment an average of 2 to 4 times a week that mobile payment has become the most commonly used method except bank cards and cash. DCCI report shows that in 2017, Chinese mobile payment users will be expected to be close to 400 million, representing an increase of about 80% compared with the previous year.

China’s food delivery market achieved over 160 billion yuan (US$25.11 billion), accounting for by 5.8% of the overall catering market, and this proportion will be expected to increase to 9% of over 300 billion yuan (US$49.09) in 2017.

Also read: China Offline Mobile Payment Insights in 2015