Mobile Payments Hit $5.5 Trillion In China

Mobile payments reached $5.5 trillion in China in 2016, representing more than half the country’s total gross domestic product.

That’s according to a report on the size of the mobile payment market in China, which it found is 50 times the size of mobile pay market in the U.S. Comparing the two countries in terms of digital payments may not be fair. In  China, mobile payments are often made possible by a QR-code system. Such systems have failed to gain wide use in the U.S. The QR-code systems are inexpensive to implements and work with low-end devices, fueling the digital payment market in China.  But as the report points out, it does show the mobile payment market in the U.S. is still a huge opportunity, with Apple’s Apple Pay holding a minority market share. One day, Apple Pay could become the main way iPhone users pay for things.

Currently, the adoption rate of Apple Pay is declining. In April the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple Pay had failed to take off in the U.S., more than two years after it launched.  One of the main reasons for the slowing adoption rates: security concerns.  Based on PYMNTS’ own research, Apple Pay isn’t used by that many consumers in the U.S.  PYMNTS found that the rate of consumers with the right phones and the Apple Pay app shopping in stores that accepted it and who used it more than once peaked in March of 2015. Nearly 49 percent of Apple Pay users  told us in March of 2017 that the reason they don’t use Apple Pay is because they’re happy with their existing payments methods — up from 37 percent two years earlier.