Asia dominated the list of top ten destinations in terms of transaction volume. Hong Kong, Thailand and South Korea retained their first, second and third spots respectively.
Millions of Chinese have just returned from their annual Labor Day holiday, where they usually take the opportunity to get a quick overseas break. With Alipay available in a growing number of destinations and payment scenarios, overseas spending on the app skyrocketed this May Day, in comparison to last year*.
Here’s highlighting some of the key data points this year:
- Alipay processed five times as many in-store transactions overseas during this year’s May Day holiday, compared to 2017.
- Asia dominated the list of top ten destinations in terms of transaction volume. Hong Kong, Thailand and South Korea retained their first, second and third spots respectively. In Malaysia, where merchants first began accepting Alipay in May 2017, was one of the top ten countries for transactional volume.
|
Top 10 May Day destinations by transaction volume |
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|
2018 |
|
2017 |
|
Hong Kong |
1 |
Hong Kong |
|
Thailand |
2 |
Thailand |
|
South Korea |
3 |
South Korea |
|
Japan |
4 |
Japan |
|
Macau |
5 |
Macau |
|
Taiwan |
6 |
Taiwan |
|
Australia |
7 |
United States |
|
Singapore |
8 |
Singapore |
|
Malaysia |
9 |
Australia |
|
United States |
10 |
Germany |
- Destinations in Europe and North America observed the fastest growth in Alipay usage in comparison to last year, with several countries seeing transaction volume growth of over 1000%. Several Asia-Pacific destinations including Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore also saw significant growth in transaction volume.
- There was an average per-capita spend of RMB 1117.31 for Singapore, RMB 1122.14 for Thailand and RMB 1021.18 for Malaysia.
|
Alipay Transaction Volume Growth (May Day 2018 vs. May Day 2017) |
|
|
Canada |
16x |
|
Netherlands |
12x |
|
Czech Republic |
11x |
|
Australia |
9x |
|
France |
8x |
|
United Kingdom |
8x |
|
Hong Kong |
7x |
|
Singapore |
7x |
- Average total spend per user increased by 59% to RMB1,508 (approx. US$237) from last year’s RMB946 (approx. US$149). Average total spend was highest in Spain (RMB7,965 (approx. US$1,250), followed by France and Italy. European destinations accounted for half of the top 10 countries in terms of total per-user spend.
|
Average total amount spent per user |
|
|
1 |
Spain |
|
2 |
France |
|
3 |
Italy |
|
4 |
Israel |
|
5 |
South Korea |
|
6 |
UAE |
|
7 |
United Kingdom |
|
8 |
Ireland |
|
9 |
Austria |
|
10 |
Japan |
- Just under two-thirds of those who used Alipay overseas were female.
- Those born in the 1980s and 1990s accounted for 85% of all those who used Alipay overseas.
- American-style fast food chains, Hong Kong-style cafes, and coffee shops processed the most overseas Alipay transactions amongst eating establishments.
- Among the 29 countries that support tax refunds via Alipay, South Korea recorded the highest amount in RMB terms, followed by France and Germany.
*The three-day May Day (or Labor Day) holiday fell between April 29 and May 1 in both 2018 and 2017.
Tatiana is the news co-ordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes to monitor the hundrends of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skim the most important according to our strategy. She holds a Bachelor degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
