China: Mobile Payment Paradise
It’s hard to believe how far mobile payments have come in China in such a short time. This picture (via Ryan King) illustrates it well:
Family Mart is a Japanese convenience store chain doing extremely well in Shanghai. The four mobile payment options offered in the photo are:
– AliPay (支付宝)
– WeChat Pay (微信支付)
– BestPay (翼支付)
– QQ Wallet (QQ钱包)
(And yes, those are condoms on sale, right under the register. Seems to be a Family Mart thing.)
Most places of China don’t even have a Family Mart. Nevertheless a nice development!
well China already has too many Seven-Eleven and many other indigenous convenience stores.
Regarding the prominent placement of condoms at counter-top and kids’ eye level at virtually all Shanghai convenience stores: When I first moved to Shanghai I was taken aback by this in-your-face product positioning, and I wasn’t a father then. When I became a father I began to think, ‘wow we are going to get early questions from the kids on what are these’, as they are so shiny and prominent on every convenience store counter. After thinking about ‘the why’ of the locational positioning, my current working theory is that it is a requirement of the business licence terms for convenience stores that they display condoms for purchase at the counter-top level as part of China’s family planning policies (although have no verification this is actually the case).
I am surprised you even mention the condoms. Every supermarket and convenience store I know of has them right by the checkouts and have done so for many years.
Seems sensible to me.
Nothing to do with Japan or Family Mart.