Alipay-logo.jpg (Photo : www.shanghai.wikia.com)
Shanghai residents led those from other Chinese cities this 2014 in terms of cumulative per capita payment made through Alipay, revealed a report from Alibaba's payment affiliate.
Data released by Alipay, established in 2004, showed that residents in Shanghai paid an average of 38,561 yuan ($6,230) from January to October, with online shopping payments comprising most of the paid amount at 16,159 yuan.
Residents in Beijing, Zhejiang and Guangdong respectively trail behind China's most populous city.
The data also revealed that the rest of the total payment from Shanghai residents was made for utilities and credit card bills.
On a bigger scale, the report said that Shanghai's payment since the platform's establishment accounted for 9.3 percent of the overall payments in China.
Shanghai is also among the top five locations that contributed to the total of 42.3 billion transactions via Alipay; Guangdong, Beijing, Zhejiang and Jiangsu form the rest of the group.
The report conversely showed the spending history and behavior of the platform's over 300 million users since 2004.
In 2014, mobile payments constituted half of the total number of transactions, with Tibet, Ningxia, Shaanxi Province and Inner Mongolia providing the lion's share.
Payment from less developed western regions also grew considerably this year. According to Chen Jin from the University of International Business and Economics, the advent of smartphones and mobile Internet in these regions propelled the said growth despite poor transportation.
Meanwhile, Alibaba has opened its shares to the U.S. in September through an IPO, which generated $25 billion for China's top e-commerce company.
Founder Jack Ma said that Alipay will also be opened to the public in the future.
