According to a study released by research firm Analysys International, in Q4 2011 online payments in China reached USD 117.3 billion, up by 30.9 percent from Q3 2011. The growth was largely down to an increasing demand for online shopping, travel booking and gaming. Alipay, an affiliate of Alibaba Group, took 46 percent of the total online payments, while internet company Tencent took about 25%. Government support for new market participants also helped growth as the People's Bank of China (PBOC) granted over 70 new licenses to non-financial organizations engaged in payment and settlement businesses in 2011 bringing the total to more than 100 licensees.

On December 31st, New Year’s eve, the PBOC finally issued another 61 third-party payment licenses which probably were the best holiday gifts for the third-party payment companies who had been waiting for the new licenses.

According to PBOC, in 2011 Q3, China’s payment system processed 3.9 billion transaction volumes amounting to 510 trillion RMB. HVPS volume keeps a rapid 35% growth rate year on year; BEPS volume especially online inter-bank clearing, has increased at phenomenal rate, mainly driven by faster growth in the area of online petty expense payments.

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.