Organ donation has become a lot easier in China thanks to a simplified registration process brought about by collaboration with the nationally used Alipay online payment platform.

Savelife.org.cn, the website sponsored by the China Organ Transplantation Development Foundation, was set up in 2014 aimed at a platform for public organ donation.

　　Savelife.org.cn, or known as love and hope, is the first domestic organ donor registration system. [File photo: China Youth Volunteer]

But a complicated registration process and a lack of publicity meant it was largely unknown by the general public. By the end of 2016 there were only a limited number of donors subscribed to the website.

The site then upgraded its system on Dec 22, 2016 to use Alipay to help shorten the registration process allowing donors to sign in in just 10 seconds.

　　Alipay's "medical services" page gives a direct link to the registration process for organ donation. [Photo: scol.com.cn]

The move has turned out to be a game changer. Over 86 thousand new users had registered to the website three days after the system update, which equals the number who signed up over the last two years. The number then increased to over 100 thousand just two months later.

　　Organ donation in China

Over four thousand Chinese citizens donated 11,296 organs including hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys after their death in 2016.

　　An eighty-year-old couple registered for after-death organ donation in February, 2017 in Xi'an. [File photo: Chinese Business View]

Statistics also reveal that over 15 thousand organs were transplanted throughout last year, which makes China the second largest country in organ transplantation.

Nonetheless organ donation rates in China are still relatively low compared with countries like the United States and parts of Europe where donation rates can reach up to 40 per million of the population. In China it barely reaches 2.98 per million.

An earlier survey of organ donation in China shows that 98 percent of respondents are willing to donate. Approximately half of those unwilling were concerned about the complex registering process or don't know where to register their intention to donate.

The new upgraded website is expected to make a huge difference to the situation.