A foreigner pays his medical fees by scanning the QR code on a machine at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on April 14, 2017. （Photo/Xinhua）
Another mobile payment user said "the services, either WeChat Wallet or Alipay, will automatically record the trades, like an account book, which helps to know where money has gone every month."
According to internet research company iResearch, the market of mobile payments reached 38 trillion yuan ($5.5 trillion) in 2016, about 50 times the US market which saw $112 billion.
Alipay, the digital wallet run by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, occupied 54 percent of the Chinese market, and WeChat Wallet owned, by Tencent Holdings, had 37 percent. Other third-party companies shared the percentage remainder.
Li Yi, a researcher from the Internet Society of China, said the rapid development of mobile payments in China was due to the weak sense of service in Chinese banks.
"Globally, places have weak traditional financial systems, and mobile payments and other non-cash payments are more developed," he said.
"For example, Kenya also has a high popularity of mobile payments."
The popularity of digital payments, however, has a potential risk in data privacy and financial security. To combat this, the Chinese government has issued regulations.
Ye Wentian, a researcher at the Ant Financial Business School, reminded users to refrain from scanning QR codes from unknown sources, which might be inset with viruses.
He added people should raise awareness of fraudulence, such as refund claims asking users to transfer or scan QR codes.
