Bangkok--11 Oct--PC & Associates Consulting
Following China's week-long Golden Week holiday (October 1 to 7), with Alipay's increasing presence across key global destinations, overseas spending through the app continued to increase, compared to the same period last year.
As part of the holiday season, Alipay launched a lucky draw campaign this year with over 3.1 million participants, which received over 230 million views on social media for Alipay and its merchant partners. The lucky winner received gifts and rewards offered by over 200 of Alipay's merchant partners from across the globe, and will be able to redeem items during her overseas travels around the world over the course of the next year.
Alipay, the world's largest mobile payment and lifestyle platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, today announced the overseas transaction summary for this year's Golden Week (October 1 – 7).
- Alipay processed 2.2 times as many overseas in-store transactions during this year's holiday compared to last year.
Asia continued to dominate the top ten list of destinations in terms of transaction volume. Hong Kong topped the list again, with Thailand retaining its #2 ranking. Japan rose to #3 this year.
Top 10 Golden Week destinations by transaction volume
2018 2017
Hong Kong, China 1 Hong Kong, China
Thailand 2 Thailand
Japan 3 Taiwan, China
Republic of Korea 4 Japan
Macau, China 5 Republic of Korea
Taiwan, China 6 Macau, China
Singapore 7 Singapore
Malaysia 8 Malaysia
Australia 9 Australia
United States 10 United States
Less visited destinations in Europe saw some of the fastest growth in Alipay use compared to the year before, thanks to the mass rollout of Alipay to merchants across the region over the last 12 months. Switzerland saw 27 times the volume of transactions than in 2017.
Alipay Transaction Volume Growth (Golden Week 2018 vs. Golden Week 2017)
Switzerland 27x
Spain 14x
Cambodia 14x
Russia 12x
Norway 10x
Netherlands 8x
Italy 7x
Greece 7x
France 5x
Average total spend per user increased 30% to RMB1,979 (approx. US$288) from last year's RMB1,534 (approx. US$223). Average total spend per user was highest in Denmark at RMB8,764 (approx. US$1,276), followed by France and Italy. EMEA destinations accounted for most of the countries in the top 10 in terms of the highest total spend per user.
For each continent, Europe average: RMB3,630 (approx. US$528), US & Canada: RMB1,888 (approx. US$275), Australia and New Zealand: 1,819 yuan (approx. US$265), Southeast Asia: 1,527 yuan (approx. US$222), East Asia: 1,850 yuan (approx. US$269).
Highest average total spend per user
1 Denmark
2 France
3 Italy
4 Belgium
5 Switzerland
6 Spain
7 UAE
8 Netherlands
9 Republic of Korea
10 Israel
-Iceland and the Maldives started to provide Alipay payment services for Chinese travellers ahead of this year's Golden Week. Alipay is currently available for use to Chinese travellers in over forty countries and regions globally.
- There were twice as many women as men who used Alipay overseas.
- Those born in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s accounted for 96% of all those who used Alipay overseas. The number for those born in the 1960s using Alipay overseas during Golden Week doubled compared to last year.
- Over 3.1 million Chinese participated in Alipay's Golden Week lucky draw by interacting with Alipay's official Weibo account. On October 7th, a 26-year-old woman from Beijing was announced as the winner. She received prizes provided by over 200 merchants across 15 countries and regions globally. The lucky draw campaign attracted over 230 million views for Alipay and its merchant partners and led to widespread discussion on social and traditional media in China during the 7-day competition period.
- Over 3 million Alipay e-Coupons were used by overseas travellers to secure discounts for shopping, dining and taxi rides.
Specific Insight for Thailand:
The transaction volume in Thailand rank no. 2 globally, no. 1 in SEA, after Hong Kong, 1.4 times of last year average spend per user: RMB 1584, 0.95 times of last year, rank 23 globally
Convenient stores, duty-free shops, drugstore were widely accessed places and modes highly preferred by Chinese tourists
Suvarnabhumi airport: ranked 3rd among all airports globally per transaction volume globally, after Hong Kong Intl airport and Changi Airport, transaction volume 1.3 times of last year,
average spend per user 1091 yuan, 1.3 times of last year
Before the golden week, 3,000 airport taxis started to accept Alipay, and hundreds of rides had been paid by Alipay during golden week. It is becoming a significant trend in Thailand for Chinese visitors to pay taxi rides by Alipay.
About Ant Financial
Ant Financial Services Group is dedicated to using technology to bring the world equal opportunities. Our technologies, including blockchain, artificial intelligence, security, Internet of Things and computing, empower us and our ecosystem partners to serve the unbanked and underbanked, bringing more secure, transparent, cost-effective and inclusive financial services to individuals and SMEs worldwide.
Ant Financial has formed international partnerships with global strategic partners to serve local users in those markets, and we serve Chinese travelers overseas by connecting Alipay with online and offline merchants in popular destinations. By the end of March 2018, together with its global JV partners, Ant Financial served 870 million users worldwide. Brands under Ant Financial Services Group include Alipay, Ant Fortune, Zhima Credit, MYbank and Ant Financial Cloud.
For more information on Ant Financial, please visit our website at www.antfin.com or follow us on Twitter @AntFinancial.
About Alipay
Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world's largest mobile and online payment platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently works with over 200 domestic financial institution partners. Over the years, Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Alipay's in-store payment service covers over 40 countries and regions across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 29 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently supports 27 currencies.
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