QR code payment is still the most commonly used payment method for mobile payment users in China according to China Payment & Clearing Association’s research. “Which payment do you use more in daily life?” According to recent research conducted by the China Payment & Clearing Association, QR code payment remains the most frequently used payment […]
UnionPay News, Trends, Insights
China Payment » UnionPay
China UnionPay was established in March 2002. It is a joint organization of China bank cards approved by the People's Bank of China with the approval of the State Council.
It is headquartered in Shanghai. As of September 2019, China UnionPay has become the largest card organization in the world, issuing nearly 8 billion bank cards.
UnionPay Mobile Payment
The UnionPay mobile app is the unified mobile payment portal of China's banking industry launched by UnionPay together with commercial banks and payment service providers in China. The app offers one-stop mobile payment services to its users.
So far, users of the UnionPay app can enjoy safe and convenient mobile payment services in 48 countries and regions. UnionPay QR code payment is accepted at over 16 million merchants in mainland China, and is available in 31 countries and regions outside mainland China.
The app users can also make tap & go payments at over 2.8 million POS terminals in 37 countries and regions.
UnionPay's mobile payment market share is far behind Alipay and WeChat Pay but leads the other players.
UnionPay QuickPass
On the introduction of EMV chips into China UnionPay cards, banks also introduced QuickPass (or Flash Pay), a contactless smart card feature similar to MasterCard's PayPass or Visa's payWave.
QuickPass is accepted in many supermarkets and fast food stores. QuickPass is also supported by several digital wallet providers such as Samsung Pay and Apple Pay.
UnionPay Partners
In 2005, UnionPay entered into agreements with other payment networks to increase acceptance around the world. Some major examples include Discover, RuPay in India, JCB in Japan, BC Card in South Korea
China National Day Travelers’ Insights 2021
Self-driving tour has become the standard for National Day Golden Week travel in 2021, and the popularity rises by 150% according to Mafengwo. From October 1 to 7, UnionPay online transactions totaled 2.72 trillion yuan, with 4.863 billion transactions, and the average number of daily transactions increased by 31.73% year on year. UnionPay data show […]
UnionPay integrates with Alipay and WeChat Pay
WeChat Pay has officially implemented mutual recognition and mutual scanning of offline QR codes with UnionPay’s Flash app. Users can scan WeChat payment codes through the UnionPay Flash payment app in provincial capitals across the country to complete payment.
China’s top mobile payment apps compared: Alipay, Tenpay, Unionpay
The competition pattern of “duopoly” is still solid, while the competitiveness of UnionPay, a state-owned player, is improving. The penetration rates of Tenpay, inclusive of WeChat Pay and Mobile QQ Wallet, and Alipay are 89.2% and 69.5% respectively, with the number of estimated users reaching 940 million and 740 million respectively, according to an Ipsos […]
Top mobile payment apps in China in 2018
Market penetration of payment and settlement applications in China reached the highest point in December 2018 with an average DAUs of 157.9 million. Alipay is the distant leader with a penetration of 55.2%. Market penetration of payment and settlement apps reached 61.3% in December 2018, with an increase of 16.3% year-on-year. Its average DAU increased […]
China 3rd-party payment overview for Q4 2018
In Q4 2018, China’s third-party mobile payment grew by 7.78% to US$7 trillion in Q4 2018. Alipay (53.78%) and Tencent Finance (38.87%) combined had a total of 92.65% market share. The third-party internet payment market shrank by 3.48% quarter-on-quarter to US$0.94 trillion. The top 3 players accounted for 56.42% share of this market. 3rd-party mobile […]
China’s payment and online banking mobile app market overview in 2018
China’s top 3 online banking players accounted for 36.7% of the total monthly active users of the online banking industry in December 2018. UnionPay QuickPass saw a high growth of 289.9% in monthly active users. Alipay’s daily active users grew by 20.2% to 320 million thanks to its Wufu campaign. Both online banking and payment & […]
Huawei turning its smartphones to POS machines
Huawei is turning all its smartphones to Point-of-Sale (POS) machines based on the NFC technology, which means potentially hundreds of millions of POS machines. Merchants only need to activate online billing service to receive payment without any traditional POS machine or QR code. Huawei Pay made its debut on August 31, 2016, under a joint branding […]
China non-financial institutes handled US$8 trillion transactions in Q3 2018
The third-party comprehensive payment market picked up in Q3 after its sluggish start this year, which reached 54.94 trillion yuan (US$8.01T) with a growth of 7.99% quarter-on-quarter. Alipay, Tencent Finance, and UnionPay combined accounted for 87.5% of the total. China’s non-financial institutes that provide payment services processed around 54.94 trillion yuan-valued transactions in Q3 2018, an […]
China online payment market down by 2.58% in Q3 2018
The third-party internet payment market in China showed no signs of picking up after its slump in Q2, which had been down from 6.96 trillion yuan (US$1.02T) in Q1 to just 6.54 trillion yuan (US$0.95T) in Q3. Alipay, UnionPay, and Tencent Finance combined accounted for 56% market share. China’s third-party internet payment market slid by […]
China third-party online and mobile payment markets overview Q3 2017
The total transactions via non-finance institutions in China totaled 42,167.92 billion yuan in Q3 2017 with an increase of 17.4% QoQ according to Analysis. This market is led by Alipay, Tencent Finance, and China UMS with 41.36%, 29.07%, and 13.41% market share respectively. China third-party internet payment market saw 6,381.551 billion yuan transactions in Q3 2017 […]
China online payment market overview Q2 2017
Internet and mobile payment services have spread like wildfire in China over the last two years, filling the gap which existed in the formerly cash-dominant society for the safe and secure transfer of money and electronic payments. China has only a very limited credit and debit card infrastructure, offering an opening for mobile payments unseen […]
China third-party online payment market overview Q1 2017
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.
China online payment overview for Q2 2016
China Third-party online payment market had a total transaction value of RMB 4.65 trillion in Q2 2016, with an increase of 6.5% QoQ according to Analysis.
Next trip for Chinese outbound travelers: safety, sightseeing, dining, visa, currency
On average Chinese outbound travelers spent 17% less per day in a twelve-month period than the previous year – from RMB3,324 (US$508) to RMB2,849 (US$436) according to a survey from Hotels.com.