China's National Day holiday sees surge in online payments: WeChat

An Indian passenger (L) asks about Weixin Pay, one of China's major mobile payment platforms, at Terminal 2 of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, April 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)

BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's just-concluded National Day holiday has seen strong consumption momentum, as indicated by a surge in the number of transactions made via Weixin Pay, a major mobile payment method in China.

Over the week-long holiday ending on Monday, the total number of online and offline transactions going through Weixin Pay increased by 20 percent year on year, said a report released by WeChat, an all-in-one social media app operated by Tencent.

According to the report, cross-border transactions using the service during the period surged by 68 percent compared to last year, suggesting high demand for overseas travel. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Macao SAR, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Japan are among the most popular overseas destinations based on the transaction figures.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong residents were also active shoppers on the Chinese mainland during the holiday, with both the number and amount of transactions using WeChat Pay approximately doubling year on year, it said.

A boom in tourism and consumption has characterized this year's National Day holiday, during which 765 million domestic trips were made, marking a yearly increase of 5.9 percent, while domestic tourist spending climbed 6.3 percent to 700.8 billion yuan (about 99.11 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.