Author |Cat brother.
*|Big Cat Finance Pro
Having money to spend?
Recently, at the National Standing Committee meeting presided over by the Prime Minister, an opinion was adopted, which mainly aims to optimize payment services and improve the convenience of payment, that is, for the elderly and foreign people to China, a variety of payment methods should be parallel, mobile payment, bank cards and cash should be parallel.
Of course, it is mainly the foreign personnel who come to China who have a relatively high voice.
In developed countries such as Europe and the United States, the penetration rate of mobile payment is relatively low, and it is still accustomed to cash payment and card paymentWhen I arrived in China, I found that everyone was scanning the code to pay, and I could only hold the bank card, and there was nowhere to swipe it, because there were fewer and fewer POS machines that could swipe the wild card, and some places had never heard of it at all, and the small stall vendors, if you asked him for a POS machine, it was definitely difficult for them.
Therefore, many foreigners complain on Chinese social platformsIt's too hard to consume in China.
A while ago, a Korean female doctor spoke fluent Chinese about the payment difficulties she encountered in China and the difficulty of taking a taxiIn particular, the need to improve electronic payments was expressed.
Is there a real dilemma? Indeed there is.
For example,Many apps in China require a Chinese mobile phone number to register, but China's mobile phone number is a real-name systemEspecially in recent years, electric fraud has been rampant, and the control of this aspect is more strict, and there is no "tourist card" that some countries will launch.
If you want to apply for a bank card in China, it is also more difficult.
According to the caliber of Bank of China's customer service, foreigners who want to apply for a bank card need valid documents, in addition to passports, residence permits, "five-star cards" and other documents, that isIf you want to apply for a local bank card, you need at least a long-term visaIf you only have a short-term visa such as a tourist, it will be very difficult.
Is this a deliberate attempt by China to create difficulties for them? Not really.
And, to some extent, the difficulties are reciprocal.
For example, the problem of mobile phone cards, many countries do buy them casually, but fraud in the name of the embassy is also a frequent occurrence; As for bank cards,It is also difficult for Chinese short-term visa holders to apply for a bank card.
It's understandable to talk about difficulties, but is it really that difficult?
If the Korean doctor registers Alipay with his Korean mobile phone number, he will find that there are no cumbersome functions for foreigners, but there should be a lot of them, not only can they bind the credit and debit cards of the six major card organizations, but also use online taxi software to realize the taxi service.
In addition, South Korea's Kookmin Bank can actually issue UnionPay cards, and no matter how bad it is, the branches of China's major state-owned banks in South Korea can also issue UnionPay cards.
With a little homework, it's not that hard to solve.
On the other hand, foreigners complain about the difficulty of payment, and refuse to accept the payment by scanning the code, is it really a matter of pure habit?
In fact, there has always been a debate on the Internet, that is, who is the most advanced of the two methods of scanning QR code and NFC Pay, and the original technical and commercial controversy has become an ideological dispute.
Many overseas IP netizens,Classifying code scanning as "Chinese-style", and then, there will be resistance on its own.
If you really want to swipe your card, you have to settle the economic account.
In order to attract Chinese tourists, China's neighboring countries have basically accepted Alipay, WeChat Pay, UnionPay and other Chinese-style payment methods, scanning codes, swiping cards, popular areas can be "no different from China", and more avant-garde places, even Bitcoin payment.
It is so difficult for foreigners to swipe a card, in essence, because it is not cost-effective.
For example, if you use a credit card abroad, you will incur a handling fee from the card networkMany merchants indicate that the money needs to be paid out of pocket, 15%-3%.Even the ** department collection (such as the immigration office) needs to be paid.
However, the domestic scanning code payment fee can be calculated in a few thousandths or even a few thousandthsMerchants can absorb this part of the cost on their own.
1.Isn't 5%-3% indigestible? You can also do that,When the volume is large enough, the merchant can bear this part of the costAfter all, you see, many overseas shopping malls have active discounts specifically for UnionPay cards, and the 5% discount is the basic price, as long as you buy it, these are not a problem.
This is the real treatment of the financier.
Comparable data shows that in 2019, the total number of inbound tourists was 14.5 billion person-times, the national inbound tourism revenue of 77.1 billion US dollars, accounting for 05%, that is,The average spending per person is US$532, or about 3,700 yuan, compared to 140,000 yuan.
Foreigners want to become the financiers in the Chinese market through consumption, and the poor consumption power is not a star and a half.
AbsolutelyNow China has reinstated many of its previous visa-free policiesFor example, many port cities are visa-free for 72 hours and 144 hours, and Hainan Island is visa-free for entry; In December last year, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Ireland were granted unilateral visa exemptions; This year, it has waived visas with Thailand and Singapore.
The expansion of the circle of friends means that people from these countries can come to China, of course, they still have to consume.
Now, the policy is also available, and there are no technical obstacles, and the number of inbound tourists this year may also reach a new peak, so that is to say,It is still possible to use purchasing power to force our payment methods to "regress".