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China mostly uses WeChat's payment system and Alibaba's Alipay on mobile devices.

• janekm 8y ago
  And for the direct equivalent of Visa/MC there's unionpay.
• yoz-y 8y ago
  Most merchants also prefer to take WeChat and AliPay because there are no fees.
• ceejayoz 8y ago
  Not sure why you're getting downvoted. NPR had a story on exactly this - China largely skipped credit cards and went straight for the mobile payments. https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/06/29/534846403/in-china-a-cashless-trend-is-taking-hold-with-mobile-payments https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/06/29/53...
  • rfinney 8y ago
    It's called "protectionism". China did the same thing by banning Google and supporting Baidu.
    • ceejayoz 8y ago
      Sort of. In Baidu's case, they're a locally grown replacement. Per the article, local credit systems didn't really take off; a researcher in the article states their belief it's due to different attitudes on debt in China.
    • pound 8y ago
      or maybe it's just the case of being "late to the game", when you don't have to stick to particular technology just because there was a significant investment in its' infrastructure, but can choose whatever you want from what is available currently.
  • philsnow 8y ago
    Africa did as well for the most part, didn't they? I recall reading how people there are largely "unbanked" but they carry balances with their cell provider somehow and pay each other that way.
    • pgeorgi 8y ago
      In Africa that would be m-pesa, started by a Kenyan telecom and Vodafone. One fun bit is that it uses SIM applications[0], something that's barely used for anything serious except for m-pesa (and its spin-offs) but exists practically across the entire GSM infrastructure. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_Application_Toolkit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_Application_Toolkit