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China’s booming digital economy draws global attention

Updated: May 24,2017 10:37 AM     english.gov.cn/The Beijing News

With new business formats and models supported by new technology increasingly seeing boosts in China, Premier Li Keqiang gave full appreciation to the sharing economy and Internet Plus at this year’s two sessions, saying they adapted to market demands and consumer requirements.

He also urged speeding up the creation of new emerging industries, and finding supervision rules with the principles of encouraging creativity and inclusiveness to guide their development.

The Premier also told related departments that for new business formats and models, a supervision mechanism should be set up for the identified formats, keep watch on the unfamiliar, supervise the ones with potential risks and shut down the illegal categories.

The growing Chinese digital economy has drawn global attention. German Manager Magazin reported that more than 2,000 stores and restaurants in Europe allow the use of Chinese digital payment platform Alipay, and the number is increasing every day.

According to Manager Magazin, the revolution of the finance industry in China is now transferring to Europe, and as for online payments, no other country could compete with China.

Last year, China’s online transaction volume was worth $2.9 trillion, representing a 20-fold growth in the past four years, according to the Better than Cash Alliance under the United Nations, a global partnership working to accelerate the transition from cash to digital payments.

Financial Times also reported that like its many other fields, the rapid pace of scale and change in China’s digital economy is also exciting.

By 2016, China had 730 million internet users, and 95 percent of them were online via cell phones, the report cited Chinese official data, saying that if you want to know what a society without cash is, go to China and you can find it on any street corner.

The Financial Times website also reported that 470 million Chinese used mobile payment platforms last year, and the market scale of digital payment in China is now 50 times larger than in the United States.

Mobile payment not only is changing the lifestyle of Chinese, but also gives support of the integration of online and offline economies, and it also proves the concept of “innovation-driven transformation and upgrades of real economy” proposed by Premier Li.