Payments by mobile phone ring up

BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Payments by mobile phones in China will see rapid growth over the next few years, boosted by the rising number of smartphone users as more capital and policies are directed toward the industry, a report by Minsheng Securities and iResearch showed.

China is expected to have 230 million mobile payment users by the end of this year, generating estimated transactions of 11.37 billion yuan ( 1.8 billion U.S.dollars), 400 percent up on the previous year, the report said.

The volume is expected to rise to 35.78 billion yuan in 2012, when there will be approximately 320 million mobile subscribers who do payment by cell phones in China, it added.

China's mobile phone subscribers increased by 81.1 million people year-on-year in the first eight months this year to more than 940 million people, of which, 94.1 million are third-generation (3G) mobile phone users, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Sept 26.

Mobile payment is also known as Mobile wallet. It is an alternative payment method for cash, check or credit cards and is used to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods using a mobile device.

Mobile payment can be made in two ways in general: remotely via SMS and the Internet, or near field communication (NFC) which is used mostly in paying for purchases made in physical, as opposed to virtual, stores or transport services.

Globally, purchases made via mobile devices will together generate transactions worth 86.1 billion U.S.dollars in 2011, iResearch Consulting Group's data showed.

British market researcher Juniper Research said the Far East and China, western Europe and North America will represent more than 70 percent of global mobile money being transferred by 2013.

A plan drafted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology expected China's electronic commerce to triple by the end of the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), with mobile payment as a leading sector.