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This is why you’re starting to see services like Swapsy and Megachange. They take USD via PayPal and “convert” or “match” it to RMB in WeChat and Alipay. I th

This is why you’re starting to see services like Swapsy and Megachange. They take USD via PayPal and “convert” or “match” it to RMB in WeChat and Alipay. I think you’re right though: this is going to be a concern for tourists to China. Maybe that won’t be a concern for the locals or maybe the cashless services will figure out some way to take foreign cash for electronic credits, like these exchange services are doing.

brianwawok 8y ago
How big is Tourism in China? Quick google tells me 2%? https://www.statista.com/topics/1210/tourism-industry-in-china/ https://www.statista.com/topics/1210/tourism-industry-in-chi... China isn't a tropical island country with 75% of income from Tourism. It may be an acceptable risk to inconvenience tourists to have the desired local monetary policy?
- setr 8y ago
  The question doesn't really make much sense applied to the whole country, does it? It's more important I think to point out which places are important, and also have high tourism ie Also quick googling but honk kong apparently has 16% of its income, and 20% in 2014, from tourism[1]. (currently trending downwards, perhaps related to this?) This is also presumably the kind of area where these apps are most important. I'm also not sure it constitutes desired monetary policy, so much as an accident of natural processes that wasn't stopped. Whether they like it or not, I doubt it was planned, and I doubt it was truly wanted. More like, accepted. [1] https://knoema.com/atlas/Hong-Kong/topics/Tourism/Travel-and-Tourism-Total-Contribution-to-GDP/Contribution-of-travel-and-tourism-to-GDP-percent-of-GDP https://knoema.com/atlas/Hong-Kong/topics/Tourism/Travel-and...
  - Obsnold 8y ago
    Hong Kong is a bad example as cash is still king here and they use the Hong Kong Dollar not RMB. In my experience the locals don't really use wechat either unless they need to talk to people in the mainland.
da02 8y ago
So once someone gets a local phone number and bank account to open the WeChat and Alipay, they can then use Swapsy/Megachange? Or does Swapsy/Megachange have a way around the local bank account/phone # requirement?

brianwawok 8y ago

How big is Tourism in China? Quick google tells me 2%? https://www.statista.com/topics/1210/tourism-industry-in-china/ https://www.statista.com/topics/1210/tourism-industry-in-chi... China isn't a tropical island country with 75% of income from Tourism. It may be an acceptable risk to inconvenience tourists to have the desired local monetary policy?

setr 8y ago
The question doesn't really make much sense applied to the whole country, does it? It's more important I think to point out which places are important, and also have high tourism ie Also quick googling but honk kong apparently has 16% of its income, and 20% in 2014, from tourism[1]. (currently trending downwards, perhaps related to this?) This is also presumably the kind of area where these apps are most important. I'm also not sure it constitutes desired monetary policy, so much as an accident of natural processes that wasn't stopped. Whether they like it or not, I doubt it was planned, and I doubt it was truly wanted. More like, accepted. [1] https://knoema.com/atlas/Hong-Kong/topics/Tourism/Travel-and-Tourism-Total-Contribution-to-GDP/Contribution-of-travel-and-tourism-to-GDP-percent-of-GDP https://knoema.com/atlas/Hong-Kong/topics/Tourism/Travel-and...
- Obsnold 8y ago
  Hong Kong is a bad example as cash is still king here and they use the Hong Kong Dollar not RMB. In my experience the locals don't really use wechat either unless they need to talk to people in the mainland.

da02 8y ago

So once someone gets a local phone number and bank account to open the WeChat and Alipay, they can then use Swapsy/Megachange? Or does Swapsy/Megachange have a way around the local bank account/phone # requirement?