Cashless Society Has Arrived -- in China

choi

Alyssa Abkowitz, The Cashless Society Has Arrived -- in China; Mobile payments change how people shop, borrow—even panhandle. Wall Street Journal, Jan 4, 2018 (front page).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chi ... anhandle-1515000570

caption of the only photo in print: "A worker in China scan a driver's phone to charge highway toll by way of Alipay, a mobile-payment platform from Alibaba.

Quote:

(a) the first 2 1/5 paragraphs: "BEIJING—Soliciting handouts near a grocery store, Zhao Shenji, a slender man with shorn hair, made giving easy for Beijing residents accustomed to relying on their smartphones.

'Recommend using WeChat Pay,' said a placard the beggar displayed.

"It was a literal sign of the times.

(b) "Though the US saw $112 billion of mobile payments in 2016, by a Forrester Research estimate, such payments in China totaled $9 trillion, according to iResearch Consulting Group 艾瑞咨询集团 [2002- ; based in Shanghai], a Chinese firm.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest, though the article is free -- not locked behind paywall.