Cashless trend takes hold in China

Payment platforms run promotions to boost volumes

WeChat and Alipay, two major online payment platforms in China, call for consumers to go cashless and cardless in their daily life through promotions in August. Cashlessness is a new Chinese characteristic. In a recent report by Tencent, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, and French market research firm Ipsos, 84 percent of Chinese were "comfortable" going out with only mobile phones, no cash.

Gao Jingwen, in her 20s, can hardly recall when she last paid in cash.