One Year of Payments in Beijing

It has been close to a year now ever since I arrived in Beijing, and my internship here is coming to an end. Just to wrap up, I shall list out the top three highlights out of all my blog posts for this one year experience thus far.

3. Beijing's Yikatong and Singapore's Ezlink: The Growth of Contactless Payment
This makes it to the list for being the first thing that awed me when I arrived in Beijing. With buses here costing one seventh and subways at one tenth of their cost in Singapore, it made me wonder if I was being exploited back home. Even though prices continue to rise, China is going to remain a cheap place to live for a long time to come.

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896 Million Mobile Users in China through May 2011

China's mobile users reached 896.21 million at the end of May, 2011, an increase of 21 million from the end of the April this year, according to the latest statistics released by China's telecom operators.

China Mobile, China's largest mobile operator, continues to lead the pack with 611.17 million as of 1^st May 2011, up 11 million from the month of March 2011. China Unicom has a user base of 179.34 million as of 1^st May 2011, and that is an increase of 5 million from May 2011. China Telecom's user base stands at 105.70 million.

Check out our statistics section to find out the latest mobile user numbers, fixed line subscribers, xiaolingtong users, and more.

67 Million 3G Users in China through April 2011

China's 3G users reached 67.57 million at the end of April, 2011, a sizeable increase of 11 million from February, according to the latest statistics released by China's telecom operators. China Mobile, China's largest mobile operator, continues to lead the pack with 29.38 million 3G users, followed by China Unicom at 20.35 million and China Telecom at 17.84 million users.

Check out our statistics section to find out the latest mobile user numbers, fixed line subscribers, and more.

A Web Trend Map for China

Taking inspiration from the fantastic Web Trend Map series by Information Architects, we came up with our own version for China's internet, based on the Beijing subway map. Click on the image for a clearer view of the map. Please note that this is just a draft; feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it your comments and suggestions.

Also, special thanks to Agatha for the design work!

Speaking of China's internet, I will be attending the CHINICT 2011 conference on Thursday and Friday. See ya there if any of you are heading down as well.

Online Payments in Taobao, Part 2

In my first post on Taobao, I discussed the cash on delivery (COD) method and how it remains popular (with me and many others) despite the availability of other options. In this post I'll go over the receipt of items and completion of orders in Taobao.

Only once did my order not arrive, and that was because it arrived at the office on the weekend. Since no one was around, the courier had the order cancelled. Otherwise, in my seven months of Taobao shopping here in Beijing, I haven't noticed any problems with the system.

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876 Million Mobile Users in China through March 2011

China's mobile users reached 875.63 million at the end of March, 2011, an increase of 34 million from the end of the December last year, according to the latest statistics released by China's telecom operators.

China Mobile, China's largest mobile operator, continues to lead the pack with 600.84 million as of 1^st March 2011, up 16 million from the month of December 2010. China Unicom has a user base of 174.54 million as of 1^st March 2011, and that is an increase of 7 million from December 2010. China Telecom's user base stands at 100.25 million.

Check out our statistics section to find out the latest mobile user numbers, fixed line subscribers, xiaolingtong users, and more.

Online Shopping in China? Taobao's the Answer

In my payment-themed posts so far, I have touched on topics such as transport payment (Yikatong), utilities payment, and even cashless payment in other countries (T-money in Korea). This time I would like to talk about online shopping and online payment. The first name in online shopping in China right now is without a doubt Taobao. During my time in Beijing, I have used Taobao to purchase shoes, jeans, an electric toothbrush (for my boss), a first-aid kit (for the office), earphones, dictionaries, and sunglasses. Just about anything one can think of is available there. It's fair to say Taobao is the Amazon or eBay of China, though its true size and scope are closer to a combination of Amazon and eBay.

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56 Million 3G Users in China through February 2011

China's 3G users reached 55.99 million at the end of February, 2011, a sizeable increase of 9 million from the end of the previous quarter, according to the latest statistics released by China's telecom operators. China Mobile, China's largest mobile operator, continues to lead the pack with 16.98 million 3G users, followed by China Unicom at 11.66 million and China Telecom at 9.15 million users.

Check out our statistics section to find out the latest mobile user numbers, fixed line subscribers, and more.

Utility Payments - Self-service Kiosks and Queueing at the Bank

In my last post, I wrote about the prepaid and postpaid options available for utility payments in Beijing. Currently, the most common payment method is still to pay in person at a bank. While my own utility bills are included in my rent, I have made some payments at banks for my company.

A couple of months ago I was asked to pay the company's water bill. I went to a nearby branch of ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) in the early afternoon, thinking it would be less crowded during off-peak hours; indeed, there were only eight people ahead of me in the queue. Yet somehow it took a full hour before it was my turn. Some of the people in front of me spent close to fifteen minutes at the teller window, asking about every single detail on their bill. There was also a landlord making payments for multiple properties at the same time. And these were just the bill payers! The others in line were making regular banking transactions, some of which must of have been fairly complicated, at least based on the time needed. What made it even more frustrating was that when it was finally my turn, the payment was every bit as simple and easy as I thought it would be and probably took no more than one minute to complete.

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Holiday Trip in South Korea: Rent-a-Phones and T-money

I took a trip to South Korea with some friends during the Chinese New Year break, and through my visits to Seoul and Busan, I wanted to write about some of my payment experiences there. Korea is known for having among the highest penetration rates in the world for broadband and 3G usage, and they showed a similar affinity for e-payments, which were much more popular than back in Beijing.

One interesting service we encountered was the "rent-a-phone", which we purchased at the airport just after arriving in Seoul. Since our existing Chinese phones were not autoroam enabled and we didn't want to pay international fees, we had already planned to buy local SIM cards to contact one another during the trip. What we did not know was that we would have to rent the entire phone, as CMDA is the dominant standard in South Korea and there were no SIM cards to purchase. The process was fairly simple, requiring only a swipe of my credit card for the deposit. (In China most merchants would prefer a cash deposit.)

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