Mobile Payments Increasingly a Hit With Chinese Seniors

November 28, 2018 By: Steven Anderson

Usually, when we consider mobile payments—or most any technology for that matter—we think of the young as the early adopters, and often, the only adopters. For mobile payments, that’s also the case, but new word out from China says that, there at least, older folks are getting in on the trend as well. Moreover, they’re actually starting to discover a lot of the benefit of mobile payments themselves.

For instance, 71 year old Ma Wansheng, who has run a food stand in Lanzhou for over 10 years now, recently discovered that mobile payments lit a real fire under his business. With his grandson lending a hand to get him set up, Ma noticed that his business improved on several fronts. Not only is it operationally simpler—he no longer has to fumble for change while keeping his food cooking—but he also can take payments faster and get more customers through the lines.

Ma noted that almost all—95 percent, he figures—of his customers pay with mobile devices, so he can collect payments faster and keep the customer flow up and steady thanks to quick response (QR) codes on a sheet of paper that the customers can scan in order to pay for the food desired. Moreover, just two months ago, Ma started using mobile payments when he was the customer rather than the vendor, and discovered the convenience therein.

Mobile payments in China are a big deal. To see Ma get in on the action like that is reasonable; in a country where beggars increasingly sport necklaces with a QR code placard pendant on them, not having a QR code for even a food stall doesn’t make much sense. Seeing Ma take the mobile payments initiative not just on the supply side but also on the demand side, though, suggests this is a cultural shift in the making. The ramifications of such a shift are as yet unclear, but they could be big.

China is a changing place. It’s noteworthy to see how many are changing right alongside it. The good news as far as mobile payments go, meanwhile, is that clearly, change made in mobile payments’ case is clearly on the rise.