According to EnfoDesk Research, China’s third-party online payment total transaction value reached 88.9 million dollar in 2011 Q3, with 22.4% growth rate quarter on quarter, keeping a high-speed increase. After PBOC officially released third-party payment licenses in September, main players accelerate the speed of their market expansion and make the market more competitive.

On June 8th, China Union Pay (CUP), China’s bankcard association, released two non-card payment products – Union Pay Online Payment and Mobile Payment thus completing the setup of the company’s non-card online payment platform, built on Union Pay’s bankcard transaction settlement system and characterized by its open type, advanced technology, high efficiency and security.

As commonly seen as the nearest equivalent to Paypal in the Chinese market, Alipay, a Chinese online payment processor affiliated with the Alibaba Group, has enjoyed enormous popularity amongst Chinese netizens since its launch in 2004. As of December 2009, Alipay was said to possess over 250 million registered users and to oversee 5 million transactions worth ￥1.2 billion on a daily basis.

Without too much fanfare, Nokia and China Unionpay recently launched a near field communication (NFC) contactless payments trial in Shanghai allowing users to download a loyalty application over the air to their phones. It’s actually the 2nd trial of NFC in China. The first project was a ticketing and e-cash application loaded onto 100 phones in the coastal city of Xiamen which was also backed by Nokia.