Mobile device payments surge in Q2

Payments through mobile devices in China grew by triple digits in the second quarter as the market for online transactions continued its robust growth, according to a central bank report on Tuesday.

There were 371 million mobile transactions in the second quarter nationwide, up 274.7 percent from a year ago. Transaction volume rocketed by 363.9 percent compared to the same quarter last year and reached 2.07 trillion yuan ($338 billion).

This marks the fastest period of growth in the online payment industry. This year, sales reached 251.02 trillion yuan and the number of transactions surged to 6.23 billion.

In July, China UnionPay launched a smartphone application for mobile device payments and financial services.