A wooden sign for mobile pay QR codes at a store in Suzhou, China. Evelyn Cheng | CNBC

In just a few years, mobile payment has become so ingrained in the lives of Chinese people that they are driving stores in overseas tourist destinations to adopt the technology. Three-fourths of supermarkets and convenience stores in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand now accept Chinese mobile payment, according to a Nielsen survey released Monday. Some 71 percent of duty-free stores and luxury stores in those countries also take the payment method. The two dominant operators are Alipay, which is run by Alibaba-affiliate Ant Financial, and WeChat Pay, which is tied to Tencent's ubiquitous Chinese messaging app, WeChat. Alipay co-issued the report, which covers 1,244 merchants and 2,806 Chinese residents surveyed in the fall of 2018. "Along with the increasingly personalized and sophisticated demand of Chinese tourists, improving the global coverage of mobile payments is a long-term project (for merchants)," Andy Zhao, president of Nielsen China, said in a statement. Usage rate of mobile payment by Chinese tourists

Source: Nielsen Thailand is expected to be the most popular overseas travel destination for Chinese tourists during the Chinese New Year holiday in February, according to travel booking site Ctrip. Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the U.S. also rank among the top 10 countries for what Ctrip predicts will be 7 million Chinese tourists during the upcoming holiday. From street peddlers to high-end department stores, mobile pay has taken China by storm. Company promotions, a lack of credit card usage and extensive smartphone penetration helped turn a cash-based society into one in which seemingly everyone scans a QR code with a phone to pay, regardless of age. Transaction volume skyrocketed from around $5 trillion in 2016 to nearly $16 trillion by the first quarter of 2018, according to Analysys data cited in a Hillhouse Capital report. As Chinese tourists take the mobile pay habit abroad, merchants are adapting quickly. Of those in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand who accept Chinese mobile pay, 88 percent adopted the technology in the last two years, the Nielsen survey found. Of those who accept the payment methods, 40 percent said overall foot traffic increased. The report also said roughly 60 percent or more of Chinese people surveyed said they used mobile pay during trips last year to the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany or Italy.