China is a leader in financial technology, in part because of a high consumer adoption, including widespread and early use of online shopping and smartphones. It accounts for almost half of the global total of online payments and three quarters of global online lending (fintech China). WeChat, Alibaba, and Baidu all have their own digital wallets, and these ones represent more integrated forms than we see in most of the U.S. market. For example, Baidu is a search engine and WeChat is a messaging app. Integrating digital wallets into functions consumers used on smartphones gave a huge advantage and created one of many areas of fintech advancement in China.
My own internship experience in China has shown me firsthand how financial interactions are different. Online shopping is huge, and international interns would ask Chinese interns to order things on Taobao for them because we can’t get them in the U.S. However, shopping in person would be mostly in cash rather than with credit cards. In general, I noticed how integrated online transactions were into daily life. Adapting to the differences in financial transactions gave me a firsthand view of the consumer market. I believe that people around the world will have to pay attention to trends in China if they intend to move forward and be successful. In my opinion, China is and will continue to be the world leader in fintech.
Source: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21717393-advanced-technology-backward-banks-and-soaring-wealth-make-china-leader