After being the first to use banknotes, now China is scored highest to become a cashless society. By 2017, more than three-quarters of Chinese people have used digital payment. People don’t carry a wallet everywhere they go, anymore. They have left cash.
In a paper, China is behind Sweden. Sweden plans to be completely cashless as early as 2023. Yet, China’s growth of cash payment is more significant than Sweden.
Read more: Fintech Grows Fast in China, Why so?
Chinese is serious with its plans to be cashless. In 2018 alone, there are 602 cases of cash refusal. In the same year, China’s mobile payments become $17 trillion industry dominated by Tencent and Alibaba.
Becoming cashless has been everyone dream. Imagine, you can go shopping without having to carry a big wallet. You will not get surprise every time you know that your pocket is empty. To create a cashless society there are things we can learn from China.
Access to financial services
Financial services are the services provided by Financial Companies. More variety of services will be better. That, should also be accompanied by society willingness to learn and use the services. China has thousands of banks, insurance companies, consumer finance companies, and government-sponsored enterprises.
Merchant scale and competition
The Merchants should also give their support. The positive move from financial services will give more space for merchants to promote themselves. However, having a small number of merchants will slow down the pace toward a cashless society. Lesser number of merchants will decrease the possible innovation they may create. The creation of that innovation is important to attract the customer.
Technology and infrastructure
The cashless system relies on the technology developed in the country. Without steady technology development, the cashless move will be slow. If we see China, its technology has developed rapidly since the early of the 2000s.
If countries want to become a cashless society, then they can imitate China.
