If you are going to China, you need to download WeChat App. It is not just a messenger application like WhatsApp or Messenger. It’s going to be your wallet while you travel around China. Under the roof of Beijing Inspiry Technology, WeChat, along with AliPay and UnionPay begin the new era of QR Codes payments.
The little white box, as the locals said it, is available in almost every store in China. Including street vendors, traditional markets, supermarket, restaurants, rents, and rides. It is so common that you’ll get strange looks if you pay with cash. The vendors might simply have no changes for you.
The Smart Box, or more known as little white box, has brought China to be the world’s largest and fastest-growing market for mobile payments. The box shows the QR Codes of each vendors. It is more cost-effective than other means of cashless payments. It also allows self-service terminals that are widely accepted by small merchants and vendors.
The government of China also did an impressive work by making policies to support this method. The central’s bank also encourages banks and other companies from industry group to be involved in the new payment method. The bank told them how QR Codes can improve their security.
The QR Codes era seems unlikely to stop in China only. Southeast Asia has started to use this revolutionary payment method. By 2021, the Southeast Asian countries are expected to be able to increase their cashless payment transactions.
Not only Southeast Asia, recently AliPay has started the payment revolution in Europe. They launched Europe’s first joint QR Codes payment scheme using the Chinese standard. It is not impossible that within ten years, QR Codes payment would be applied all around the world. By then, you might only need smartphones to live.
