Sharp rise seen in e-payment

The use of e-payment in China rose sharply in 2013, with the value of mobile payment increasing more than threefold, the central bank said Monday.

The number of e-payment transactions across the country reached 25.8 billion in 2013, with a total transaction value of 1,075.16 trillion yuan ($177.29 trillion), a rise of 27.4 percent and 29.46 percent, respectively, from a year ago, showed data from the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank.

Of the total, 1.67 billion transactions were made via mobile payment services, an increase of 212.86 percent from 2012, while the value of mobile payment transactions hit 9.64 trillion yuan, a surge of 317.56 percent year-on-year.

"The sharp increase of mobile payment transactions is due to a relatively low base of comparison in the past," Fu Liang, a Beijing-based independent IT analyst, told the Global Times.

"With the rapid growth of mobile Internet services and the rise of mobile phone Internet users, the country's mobile payment sector has witnessed a golden age in the last two years," Fu said.

The number of people using mobile phones to access the Internet in China rose by 19.1 percent to 500 million in 2013, a -eport released by the China Internet Network Information Centre showed in January.

Competition in the mobile payment sector has also become fierce. Alipay, the payment unit of e-commerce firm Alibaba Group, has taken the lion's share of the market so far, but many newcomers have entered the area as well.

Alipay's total mobile payment volume hit 900 billion yuan in 2013, making it the largest mobile payment provider in the world, the company announced on February 8.

"The 900 billion yuan transaction value puts us way ahead of other players. Our mobile payment service in 2014 will more than double what we did last year," Zhu Jian, a senior manager in the Alipay PR department, told the Global Times Monday.

According to Zhu, Alipay will focus on offline mobile payment deals to expand its partnership with convenience stores, pharmacies and department stores this year.

Alipay entered into a partnership with Yintai, a Beijing-based retail chain, in November 2013 to allow users to pay for Yintai products via Alipay.

Tencent, a leading domestic Internet company, combined social networking with online payment last August through offering mobile payment services via the company's instant messaging app, WeChat, which analysts believe has a user base of over 600 million people.

In its latest move to expand its mobile payment services, Tencent entered a partnership Wednesday with Beijing Wangfujing Department Store (Group) Co.

Meanwhile, smartphone maker Xiaomi has also entered the e-payment business, according to media reports earlier this month.

"The leading position of Alipay in the mobile payment sector will not be challenged this year, due to its large user base and the launch of its Internet financial product, Yu'ebao, but Tencent will try to catch up," Wang Weidong, an analyst at Beijing-based iResearch Consulting Group, told the Global Times Monday.

"The competition among mobile payment operators will be focused on offline deals in the next two years," Wang said.