Alipay has revealed that overseas in-store payments on its platform increased 700% YoY during Golden Week 2017.
Overall per capita spend increased by 50% to 1,301 yuan. Asia dominated the list of top-ten destinations in terms of transaction volume. The continent also observed its fastest growth in Alipay use from last year.
In Asia, Hong Kong topped the list, followed by Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
In Singapore, transaction volumes increased by 30 times. Thailand saw six times the transaction volume of last year’s.
In Japan, transaction volumes were 16 times that of last year’s figure, while in Hong Kong and Taiwan, volumes were 13 times the 2016 figure.
In Australia, transaction volumes increased 20 times, while New Zealand saw a six-fold increase.
Per-capita spending was much higher than average in destinations outside of Asia, particularly in Europe, where users spent an average of 3,150 yuan through Alipay.
Switzerland posted the highest per-capita spend (36,298 yuan or $5,506) of any country or region, well over ten times the average for Europe as a whole.
The U.S. and Canada (1,648 yuan) and Australia and New Zealand (1,415 yuan) were also above the global average (1,301 yuan).
In Southeast Asia, Thailand (1,519 yuan) and Singapore (1,376 yuan) were above the global average (1,301 yuan). Malaysia (940 yuan) were below the global average as merchant types in the country varies from duty free stores to convenient stores and coffee shops.
Per capita consumption in Singapore was 3.4 times from last year and Thailand’s was 2.4 times from last year. People are spending much more with Alipay in the region. Those born in the 1980s and 1990s accounted for 84% of all users.
First published in FinTech Innovation