China has developed differently in terms of payment methods: while all countries have switched from cash to credit cards and are now switching to mobile phones, China has skipped a step. The use of the credit card in China is sporadic, if not non-existent.

Tenpay (including WeChat Pay and QQ Wallet)

Tenpay has the biggest market share by penetration rate in China, Wechat (Weixin), Tenpay has developed the most used mobile payment solution in China: WeChat Pay.

Tenpay users can use the Tenpay wallet to send money and make payments. The Tenpay wallet is compatible with the e-banking service of major domestic banks. Tenpay also supports Tenpay Express Checkout, enabling consumers to check out in just a few seconds, simply paying by username and password. More than 200,000 shopping websites accept Tenpay.

Alipay

Alipay is the only online payment system used on Taobao, which is the leading shopping website in China, owned by Alibaba.

Alipay has the second biggest market share in China with over 900 million users worldwide at the end of 2018 and 700 million active users. Many major websites use Alipay as an e-commerce payment method, such as Taobao, Amazon, JD.com and AirAsia, and other 40 million small shops and sellers in China.

China Union Pay

Union Pay is the world’s largest payment card issuer with approximately 30% of cards worldwide being a China UnionPay card (CUP). China Union Pay is the only domestic bank card organization in China, linking the ATMs of 14 major banks and many smaller banks throughout mainland China.

Paypal

Paypal entered into China in 2005 with services specifically designed for the Chinese population, including Chinese entrepreneurs.

But the Chinese market of mobile payment methods is very difficult to conquer for Paypal, especially against the competition.  In 2017, an agreement was reached with Baidu Wallet that allows Chinese companies to have better access to the international market and vice versa. PayPal and China UnionPay have also agreed to work together.