China’s digital yuan wallet has been downloaded by 261 million people – about a fifth of the country’s population – and been used for transactions worth 87.5 billion yuan ($13.8 billion).
The wallet is now starting to catch up with China’s dominant commercial payment apps from Ant Group and Tencent, which together account for around 94% of the digital payments marketplace.
According to Morning Consult, these apps are not only ubiquitous, they are also well-liked, with 83% of Chinese adults having at least a somewhat favourable opinion of them.
Currently only 60% of those surveyed by Morning Consult also regard the e-CNY favourably, although more than a third had not heard of or had no opinion about it.
More than a quarter of those surveyed say they don’t use the e-CNY app because they don’t need it, while 17% say they prefer using an alternative. However, 26% say they don’t use it because they don’t know how, and 13% cite technical barriers like not residing in a pilot city (nine per cent) or not having a smartphone that supports the app (four per cent).
Of those that do use the e-CNY wallet, 72% say they use it for online shopping and 67% for paying for public services such as transportation.