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Chinese Internet companies are now scrambling to get into the mobile phone industry in the world's most populated country as the number of Chinese mobile phone users reached 1.22 billion at the end of last month.
The number of mobile phone users in the country is expected to grow further and more Chinese consumers now have multiple choices when it comes to affordable and full-featured mobile phones.
According to the report released by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) this week, 817 million mobile phone users in China are connected to the Internet, which means they are using their mobile phones to search the web and make online purchases.
"Some 420.9 million of the overall mobile phone users in the country are connected using 3G connections," the report states.
The MIIT reports that the provinces of Guangdong, Henan and Sichuan recorded the most mobile phone user growth from January to October of this year.
With the growth of mobile phone users in China, the Development Research Center of the State Council confirms mobile payments have also increased and are predicted to exceed USD130 billion this year.
The figure is five times more than the total mobile payment transactions registered last year.
"This year is the beginning of a new era for mobile payments in China and the rest of the world," states the report on the online payment security released by the Development Research Center.
In 2012, 535 mobile payment transactions were conducted through mobile phones, registering a total transfer volume of Rmb2.31 trillion (USD379 billion).
This development has prompted major Internet companies in the country to stamp their presence in the mobile Internet sector. For instance, Wechat, the most popular IM service in China, had added a mobile payment service on its platform last August.
China's leading search engine, Baidu, also introduced its own mobile payment service in an attempt to corner a share of the country's growing mobile phone consumers.
