China's Mobile Payment Adoption Beats All Others

More than a billion people in China will be paying with their phones in brick-and-mortar shops, cafes and restaurants this year, according to the Statista Digital Market Outlook. That equals a penetration rate of more than 32 percent, the highest in the world.

China’s booming payment apps market is dominated by big players Alipay and WeChat Pay which have been adopted widely by shopkeepers, restaurateurs and consumers alike. In a country where a lot of small enterprises cater to customers, the use of credit cards had never been widely adopted, creating a leapfrog effect where businesses moved directly from cash to payment apps.

Yet, the overall annual transaction value per customer is higher in the U.S and several European country like the UK, Denmark and France than in China. The average Chinese consumer is projected to spend around US$1,600 with payment apps in 2019, compared to more than US$4,400 in the UK and more than US$7,000 in the U.S. Scandinavian countries take the lead when it comes to user penetration in Europe, while Germany and France lag behind.

Developing countries in Asia like India and Vietnam typically have payment app penetration levels above the world average, but the average spent per customer is still extremely low, suggesting only very casual usage by a big chunk of consumers.