Over 45 million post-90s users in China signed up Alipay’s Huabei or Just Spend for online shopping payment according to a recent report by Alipay. This payment option serves as a virtual credit card for Chinese online shoppers on Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao e-commerce sites.

That 45 million post-90s represent 47.25% of total Huabei users according to Alipay. This indicates Huabei users is close to 100 million.

Post-90s, those born between 1990 and 1999, have a total population of about 170 million in China. That means, 1 in every 4 post-90s has a Huabei account. Close to 40% of post-90s set Huabei as the default payment option of Alipay.

Top Huabei post-90s users come from Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. What’s surprising is, Tibet users rank the fourth. And, the young users in Tibet has an average monthly spend of 963 yuan, even higher than Jiangsu province. In comparison, post-90s users from economically more developed province Guangdong only ranks the 15th of using Huabei.

Huabei’s installment payments are also popular among post-90s. When they buy smartphones online, 76.5% will choose the installment option.

Most of the post-90s consumers are rational; about 70% will keep their monthly spend by Huabei within two-thirds of their credit limit. And, 99% pay Huabei loan on time.

Top 10 Chinese Regions by Average Huabei Spending

1. Shanghai
2. Beijing
3. Zhejiang
4. Tibet
5. Jiangsu
6. Hainan
7. Tianjin
8. Fujian
9. Liaoning
10. Hubei
11. Heilongjiang
12. Anhui
13. Hunan
14. Jilin
15. Guangdong

The People’s Bank of China recently released the payment business statistics for 2016. The country handled a total number of 125.111 billion non-cash payment transactions with the amount of 3,687.24 trillion yuan.

The mobile payment maintained a rapid growth momentum in China in 2016; online payment was also growing steadily; but, the phone payment business was down by 6.61%.

China’s mobile payment business saw 25.71 billion transactions in 2016, an increase of 85.82% and a total amount of 157.55 trillion yuan. But, the online payment business in China still remained the main force of non-cash payments in 2016 with a total of 461.78 billion transactions, an increase of 26.96%. The online payment reached 2,084.95 trillion yuan in China.

In 2016, China’s non-bank payment institutions accumulated a total of 163.302 billion transactions in 2016, up by 99.53%. The growth rate of the total amount was more than 100% to 99.27 trillion yuan.

As of the end of 2016, China’s banks had issued 6.125 billion bank cards, an increase of 12.54% YoY. On average, every user holds 4.47 cards, up 11.83%; and, every user has only 0.31 credit card. China’s bank card transactions totaled 115.474 billion in 2017, an increase of 35.49%; the daily average transactions totaled 316 million and 2.03 trillion yuan.

Top mobile payment scenarios in China: restaurants, taxi, fast food »

RMB credit balance totaled 93.6 trillion yuan in 2015 with an increase of 14.9% YoY according to iResearch. Consumption credit market in China is expected to exceed 41 trillion yuan in 2019.

Mortgage remains dominant component of China’s credit market, followed by credit card and car loans.

Internet loans market exceeded 800 billion yuan in China in 2015 with an increas of 248.2% from 2014. iResearch forecasts it’s going to exceed 9 trillion yuan in 2018.

Related: China Online Payment Overview for Q2 2016

Monthly active users of WeChat reached 762 million as of March in 2016 and has become a major platform for social communication.

Many brands have signed up WeChat official accounts to make it a channel to communicate with target audience according to a report from Lvyouquan. The report covered 8,006 brands and 294,176 official account posts in 18 industries published in Q3 2015.

80% official accounts published posts on working days. 36% posts are published on Wednesday and Friday. Over 40% official accounts published posts between 4pm and 7pm to attract readers who would skim through WeChat in buses or subways after coming off work at 6pm or 7pm .

The number of average post views on Friday were 3,449 among 294,176 posts according to the survey. Many users were likely to read articles after getting up between 6am and 7am, the peak time for news reading. After coming off work, 7pm to 8pm was also the reading rush hour.

Among the 18 industries surveyed, over half of the brands in network operators, e-commerce, air flight, automobile, apparel, gaming and smartphone industry had WeChat official accounts. Over 80% of operator brands utilized official accounts to cultivate consumers and potential customers.

Most official accounts released less than 10 articles in each month. Brands official accounts in the health care industry, supermarkets, insurance and automobile updated content most frequently. 60.79% health care brands released an average of 20 to 31 passages in each month while the quality index was the lowest. Official accounts of catering, gaming and banking had the highest quality index.

Xiaomi received the highest quality index among the smartphones official accounts, followed by Vivo and Huawei. Seven of the top eight high-quality smartphones official accounts were domestic brands.

Among the top 10 banking WeChat official accounts, seven were credit card accounts. Xiaomi put much effort in media and marketing every year that it received the highest quality index.

64.71% automobile brands had official accounts while the quality index was only 450. SVW, Volvo China, and Buick were top three accounts with the highest quality index.

Over 57.37% gaming brands had official accounts and the quality index was fairly high. 29% content from gaming official accounts were on gaming gift packs while readers were more likely to read articles on gaming announcement compared to gaming gift packs.

Smartphone industry official accounts published 37% posts on product publicity and 19% on promotion information. They also released content on chicken soup while few readers were interested in those.

Influenced by the third-party payment methods, banks have searched new means for more consumers. 36% content on banking official accounts were on promotion, 23% on the brand news, and 5% on chicken soup. However, the average views of promotion and chicken soup articles were higher.

Over half of automobile brands passages were on the brand news and product publicity, 15% on promotion, and 8% on automobile knowledge. However, automotive official accounts should publish more articles on promotion for readers prefer reading posts on promotion.

Companies are not the same in industry, size, resources, background and others. Thus brands must make full use of their own resources and publish posts basing on readers preference and reading habits. And  companies should adjust content and publish time of official accounts to improve quality index and improve the brand awareness.

Also read: The Value of WeChat Official Accounts

Nowadays, the penetration of internet investment products has exceeded 45% in china. The internet investment products, such as P2P, Yu’E Bao, WeChat Licaitong and so on, are very popular among internet users according to research of Nielsen.

Since Alibaba’s launch of Yu’E Bao in June 2013, there are more and more internet investment products coming out in China. By the third quarter of 2014, Yu’E Bao’s users were over 149 million. Yu’E Bao’s exceeded RMB578.9 billion (US$94.09 billion), contributing over 98% of Tian Hong Fund’s total capital as of 31 Dec 2014.

Compared Yu’E Bao with bank financial products, consumers have higher expectation about bank financial product. The convenience internet investment products, low purchase standards as well as good liquidity are 3 major reasons for consumers purchase internet investment products in China in 2014.

Compared Yu’E Bao with bank financial products, consumers have higher expectation about bank financial product. The convenience internet investment products, low purchase standards as well as good liquidity are 3 major reasons for consumers purchase internet investment products in China in 2014.

Besides, 40% Yu’E Bao’s users checked their earnings every day while over 80% of users check every week in 2014. Some users showed their satisfactory when they make a profit from internet investment products which demonstrates the happy experience brought by internet investment products.

Also read: Weibo and Alipay’s Hongbao Campaign Gone Viral

This is the part 1 of a series of posts that gives you insights on Chinese netizens behaviors from Sina Weibo. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Sina Weibo launched its 2013 Weibo User Development Report on December 6, based on massive Weibo user accounts information and consumption behavior to offer enterprises effective data support in social media marketing.

According to CNNIC, the number of Chinese netizens reached 591 million, and mobile netizens accounted for 464 million. Sina Weibo was one of the most important social networks for Chinese netizens, and its users had been growing fast in recent years.

Generally speaking, female Weibo users equaled to male Weibo users. Male accounted for 50.1%, a little bit more than female users.

Post 90s had become the major Weibo user groups, accounted for 53%. In the past year, post 90s users grew significantly. Post 80s accounted for 37%. Weibo tended to attract young user groups.

17.4% of Weibo users were from community service industry, and many were from school, real estate and IT industries.

Most of Weibo users had high education backgrounds, 70.8% owned bachelor and above degrees.

By comparing user demographics from 2012 to 2013, Capricorn, Aquarius and Cancer users’ percentages all increased a little. Libra was still the largest Weibo user group in 2013.

Post 90s users grew from 37% in 2012 to 53%, replacing 80s to be the dominant Weibo user groups.

Most people would use Weibo client, with 76% of the total users. 29% people used web version Weibo.

And lots of people became active after 8am, Weibo online users hit several apexes between 12 to 13, 16 to 17 and 22 to 23 in a day.

Mobile payment developed quite fast as mobile netizens increased, by analyzing Weibo users, we found out that 88% of them had used mobile payment in daily life. Alipay was the most popular mobile payment method, and many would also use online banks apps. NFC mobile payment also occupied a part of mobile payment market.

80.68% used mobile payment while shopping online, besides, 20.53% used it to repay credit card.

Mobile payment Weibo users, android users were apparently higher than other groups, with 64.78%. Government, school and NGO user groups had the highest percentage in mobile payment usage, with 18.47%. And users between 18 to 28 years old were the active mobile payment user group.

This is part 4 of a series of posts that walk you through a variety of stats on China credit card users. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

iResearch report of Chinese credit card user behavior gave us an insight on the demographic features of Chinese credit card holders. By of October 2013, most Chinese credit card holders were between the age of 25 to 30, accounted for 33.6% of total users. 25.5% users were between 31 to 35 years old, and 13.3% of users were between 36 to 40 years old. Generally, credit card users had an average higher age than non-credit card users.

Senior consumers had more stable jobs and strong purchasing power and repayment ability than young people, thus they were the main credit card target users.

By October 2013, male credit card holders accounted for 66.2%, 4.8% higher than non-credit card male users. And female credit card users accounted for 33.8%.

Male users had been the main consumers in finance industry, it didn’t change in credit card market. Male users generally had a deeper understanding of finance products and more interest in it, besides, male users tended to have better control over impulse purchasing than female, which made higher male credit card holders.

This is part 3 of a series of posts that walk you through a variety of stats on China credit card users. Part 1, Part 2, Part 4.

In the past year, Chinese consumers preferred to open a credit card offline, and 43.3% users went to bank branches according to iResearch. Another popular method was door-to-door sales, which accounted for 15.8%.

Bank official websites was the most often used channel to open a credit card online, with 14.5% of total users. Followed by e-bank with 13.5%. The other channels each accounted for less than 5%.

One reason was that Chinese consumers hadn’t get used to online services, what’s more, they had more face-to-face communications with salesperson and gained customized services. Another major reason was few banks offering online credit card applying channels. However, as the rise of e-banks, there would be more people choose e-bank services.

From October 2012 to October 2013, 44.4% Chinese consumers thought credit card should offer more special offers. And 26.8% users would like the banks to increase the usage of credit card points. 14% wanted to increase credit card finance management service, while less than 9% users preferred to issue an electronic credit card or to change the shape of cards.

Due to the fact that Chinese credit card market was still in the early stage, consumers’ needs for improving credit cards remained very basic. The majority of credit card holders wanted to enrich existent services and improve finance management.

This is part 2 of a series of posts that walk you through a variety of stats on China credit card users. Part 1, Part 3, Part 4.

Chinese credit cards market is prosperous, the number of credit card holders increased greatly from 2012 to 2013. According to iResearch, Chinese netizens credit card penetration reached 82% in October 2013.  82% Chinese netizens held at least one credit card, 77.7% netizens were using credit cards currently.

Of all credit cards holders, most people used only one credit card, with 33.8%. 32.7% netizens held two cards. The prosperous of Chinese credit card market was attributed to three major reasons. First, Chinese banks laid big emphasis on credit card business. Second, Chinese consumers gradually accepted the credit card consumption concept, their needs for credit cards grew bigger accordingly. Third, market environment for credit card consumption was mature over years.

By October 2013, 24.9% Chinese credit card holders expressed their concern about credit card security, and 15.9% paid attention to annual fee reduction policies. 15.8% cared about the convenience of credit card repayment.

It showed that Chinese card holders were still in the early stage, focusing mostly on the basis needs of credit cards. Top three factors which brought most attention of Chinese consumers were security, annual fee reduction and repayment convenience. It’s both opportunity and challenge for Chinese banks, for those banks which offered customized and value-added service to credit card holders will expand their market share quickly.

This is part 1 of a series of posts that walk you through a variety of stats on China credit card users. Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

iResearch released China credit card holders behavior report from 2012 to 2013 in the recent. From October 2012 to October 2013, Chinese credit card holders showed a high frequency of credit card usage. 47.2% used credit cards at least once a week, and 40.2% said they used it averagely one to four times per month.

However, although Chinese credit card holders were highly active in the past year, credit card authorized users were optimistic. Only about 17% opened credit card authorized user account, while 56% said they wouldn’t open authorized user account.

By October 2013, Chinese credit card holders who had opened credit card authorized user account and planned to open it occupied 44.4%. The most important reason for opening authorized user account was the convenience for spouse, with 30.3%. 19.7% opened it for the convenience of their relatives. 15.6% opened it to make precautions for losing primary card.

It showed that Chinese card holders were still in the early stage, focusing mostly on the basis needs of credit cards. They had pretty high credit cards using frequency, but few credit card authorized users. Most Chinese credit card holders had little knowledge of the strengths of using credit card authorized user account.

Credit card authorized user account was one of the main feature of credit card, separating it from debit card. According to iResearch survey, about 50% users opened authorized user account for the convenience of spouse and relatives. Credit card authorized user account was still very basic, with no specified features designed for authorized card holders.

In the future, Chinese banks could make innovation on family finance management credit card, this could be huge breakthrough for credit card business.

iResearch’s report showed that current Chinese consumers’ cross-border payment included cross-border online shopping, cross-border transfer and cross-border offline shopping. Most consumers used cross-border online shopping, with 65.7%. And 39.5% consumers regarded it as the most frequently used payment.

In 2012, Chinese netizen reached 560 million, and mobile internet users reached 460 million. The growth rates slowed down, which means that Chinese internet industry became mature. Affected by global internet development and finance crisis, the demand for cross-border shopping went up accordingly.

Data showed that third-party platforms were the most popular method for cross-border money transfer. 50.9% consumers chose third-party platforms to transfer money, while 39.8% chose commercial banks. Only 9.2% would use remittance companies.

18.9% Chinese consumers preferred domestic third-party online payment, and 16.6% favored online banks and 15.5% would chose credit card offline payment.

As for overseas offline payment, Chinese consumers showed a pattern of low frequency outbound and high consumption amount. 83.5% consumers’ average outbound frequency was below four times a year. And the single outbound consumption amount over 5,000 yuan (USD 815) users occupied 60%, and about one thirds of consumers spent more than 10,000 yuan (USD 1630).

Payment by card became the main overseas offline payment methods, 59.7% paid by credit card and 15.1% paid by debit card. And 90% consumers used dual-currency credit card.

The payment methods of domestic cross-border payment platforms and overseas cross-border payment platforms were slightly different. For domestic cross-border payment platforms, 50.7% consumers chose third-party payment, and 18.2% chose credit card online payment; as for overseas cross-border payment platforms, 40.9% used third-party payment and 32.8% used credit card online payment. Because overseas credit card market is more mature than Chinese market, it has higher popularity.

More than 80% Chinese consumers preferred online payment in cross-border payment.

Over 60% cross-border payment users were between 25-35, and those between 25-30 had the highest cross-border payment consumers. And 74% cross-border users had college and above educations, higher than average netizen with 64.9%.

Since the launch of Baidu Finance Center on October 28, 2013, Sina Weibo, with 500 million users, also announced on October 30 that it would launch a finance product – Weibo finance platform.

Sina Weibo finance platform will be launched by the end of 2013. Weibo finance platform will sell different types of finance products, such as money fund and insurance, and it will also add P2P services. Sina Weibo had gotten payment license already.

Internet enterprises were all eager to get involved in online finance business, Alibaba finance had covered online payment (Alipay), money fund (Yu’E Bao) and insurance; Baidu had launched Baidu Finance Center. Actually, Sina Weibo launched its finance management product Weibo Wallet in last year, offering bill payment, money transfer, credit card repayment and coupons management services.

Sina Weibo has been struggling to find a business model, Wei finance platform would be a good choice to help finance enterprises target its users more conveniently and cheaper. Finance enterprises could offer customized services via Weibo finance platform.

Accordingly, Sina Weibo has launched a series of changes to transition from marketing platform to service delivery platform.

Alibaba is said to be launch its credit payment service very soon, allowing users to use up to 5000 yuan(USD 810) credit to pay for purchasing.

At the mean time, the newly launched Wechat 5.0 draws a lot of attention for its payment service. Internet companies like Alibaba, Tencent, 360buy and Jingdong Mall are all entering into micro-loan business to challenge traditional banks.

Alibaba

Alifinance doesn’t reveal too much details, so we have to wait for the credit payment service’s launch. The credit card interest-free period is 38 days. The credit limit would based on users’ record on Taobao and Tmall. Alifiannce said they would cooperate with banks to run the service.

Earlier in June, Alibaba began offering currency fund products, called “Yu’E Bao” which means leftover treasure in Chinese. Alipay users can choose to put their money in Yu’E Bao to earn returns much higher than banks, with around 4.4% annual return. It has attracted a lot of users because of no minimum requirement and withdraw limit. Now, Yu’E Bao reached 20 billion yuan (USD 3.24 billion). Its users increased to 2.5 million merely in half a month.

Tencent

Wechat 5.0 includes payment service, which is supported by Tenpay. Now users can pay on public platform and pay be scanning QR code. The first batch of enterprises on Wechat includes many sectors, such as air ticket booking, online shopping, movie tickets group buy, etc.

ChinaAMC launched Wechat platform financial products in May 2013. Besides, it is said that Wechat also wants to cooperate with banks to launch financial products. Tenpay revealed to media that this project was ongoing.

Banks

Traditional banks made different reactions towards internet companies’ challenge.

China Industrial Bank stopped its credit card service on August 6. However, the failure of credit card doesn’t mean banks cannot do online business well.  Traditional banks have realized the compact of internet, and have been making changes to traditional business model. At present, China Merchants Bank and Ping An Bank have launched their Wechat platform financial services.

Although internet companies cannot compete with traditional banks now, but they stimulate banks to change. Although online finance service wouldn’t be a threat to big loans, in some areas, such as third party payment and Wechat payment would influence online banks and Unionpay.

Some say Alipay and Wechat are not a huge threat to banks yet, because they have to  cooperate with banks to provide online finance service. They are not competitors.