在中國城市的餐館裏 你用手機買單沒有

When diners ask for the bill in an urban Chinese restaurant, they are more likely to reach for their mobile phones than their wallets.

在中國城市的餐館裏，當食客買單的時候，他們更可能拿出手機而非錢包去結賬。

This reflects the rapid spread of mobile payment platforms, which are pushing urban China towards becoming a cashless society, leapfrogging credit cards in the process.

這反映出移動支付平臺的快速擴張，它們正在推動中國城市跳過以信用卡支付爲主的階段，邁向無現金社會。

In a survey of 1,000 urban consumers conducted by FT Confidential Research, a unit of the Financial Times, 98.3 per cent of respondents said they had used mobile payment platforms over the past three months, with little difference across city tier, age group or income level.

英國《金融時報》旗下研究服務部門“投資參考”(FT Confidential Research)對1000名城市消費者展開的調查顯示，98.3%的受訪者表示他們在過去3個月裏用過移動支付平臺，這個比例在不同級別城市、年齡區間或收入水平的受訪者中相差不大。

Alibaba’s Alipay was the most frequently used payment platform, cited by 79.5 per cent of respondents, as the first chart shows.

如第一張圖表所示，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下的支付寶(Alipay)是最多消費者經常使用的支付手段——有79.5%的受訪者選擇了這一選項。

That is a far greater proportion than those who said they most regularly used credit cards (45.5 per cent), debit cards (30 per cent) or even cash (79 per cent).

這個比例遠高於表示自己經常使用信用卡（45.5%）或借記卡（30%）的受訪者的比例，甚至高於表示自己經常使用現金的受訪者的比例（79%）。

Alipay’s chief rival Tenpay, owned by Tencent, was cited by 26 per cent of respondents. Just 0.3 per cent said they used Apple Pay.

選擇了財付通(Tenpay)的受訪者比例爲26%。財付通是騰訊(Tencent)旗下的支付平臺，是支付寶的主要競爭對手。只有0.3%的受訪者表示自己經常使用Apple Pay。

Alipay’s dominance is nationwide, selected by 79.3 per cent of respondents in first-tier cities, 80.2 per cent in second-tier cities and 79 per cent in third-tier cities. It was 5.9 percentage points more popular than cash in first-tier cities, though narrowly lost out in second and third tiers.

支付寶在全國範圍內佔據主導地位，一線城市選擇支付寶的受訪者比例是79.3%，二線城市和三線城市的這個比例分別爲80.2%和79%。在一線城市，選擇支付寶的受訪者比例比選擇現金的比例還高5.9個百分點，儘管在二三線城市，選擇支付寶的受訪者比例略低於選擇現金的比例。

The rapid adoption of such platforms means credit cards may never gain traction in China. Credit card penetration fell to 0.29 per person at the end of last year, after peaking at 0.34 at the end of 2014, according to central bank data.

此類平臺的迅速普及，意味着信用卡在中國可能永遠不會迎來勢如破竹的發展。央行數據顯示，信用卡普及率在2014年底達到每人0.34張的峯值以後，於去年年底下降至每人0.29張。

The number of users of mobile payment platform grew 64.5 per cent in that time to 357.7m.

移動支付平臺的用戶數量同期增長64.5%，至3.577億人。

Respondents said they most often used them for payments in supermarkets and shopping malls, but they are also popular for paying utilities, ordering food, buying travel tickets or eating out, as the second chart shows.

如第二張圖表所示，受訪者表示，他們最常使用移動支付平臺的地方是超市和商場，但他們也喜歡使用移動支付平臺繳納公用事業費、訂餐、買機票和火車票、外出就餐時支付餐費。

Unsurprisingly, the younger the respondent, the more likely they were to have adopted this relatively young technology: only 56.1 per cent of respondents aged 35 or older said they prefer making mobile payments to paying via PC, even though almost all owned smartphones. In contrast, 88 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds preferred paying via their mobile device.

並不令人意外的是，受訪者越年輕，就越有可能已經接受這種相對較新的技術：在35歲以上的受訪者當中，只有56.1%表示他們傾向於使用移動設備而非個人電腦支付，即便幾乎所有受訪者都有智能手機。相比之下，在18歲至24歲的受訪者當中，88%的人更喜歡通過移動設備支付。

Mobile platforms are now trying to move beyond a simple scan of a QR code for a retail transaction. Taking advantage of the big data resources of their parent companies, they are expanding into consumer finance, some with a view to challenging the traditional banks.

移動平臺已經不滿足於提供掃描二維碼的零售交易支付服務，現在正在努力拓展其他業務。通過利用母公司的龐大的數據資源，它們進入了消費金融領域，一些還有意挑戰傳統的銀行。

The central government has given its blessing. Tencent’s WeBank was launched at the start of last year by Premier Li Keqiang, who approved its first loan in a PR stunt designed to signal Beijing’s determination to increase financing support for underserved parts of the economy.

中國政府做出了支持的表態。去年年初，李克強考察騰訊旗下的微衆銀行(WeBank)，見證了該行發放首筆貸款——這場公關秀旨在暗示中國政府決心加大對扶持不足的經濟部門的融資支持。

The take-up has not been entirely smooth, however. The new online banks have not overcome a central bank regulatory hurdle to become deposit-taking institutions, which requires in-person verification of an account holder’s identity.

然而，移動平臺進軍消費金融的努力並不是特別順利。新的網絡銀行並未克服央行監管障礙，成爲吸收存款的金融機構——央行要求存款的金融機構現場確認賬戶持有人的身份。

Predictably, China’s big banks are refusing to co-operate with the upstarts, limiting the range of services they are able to offer. The head of WeBank lasted just 10 months before resigning in September last year.

意料之中的是，中國的大銀行拒絕與這些後起之秀合作，限制了後者能夠提供的服務範圍。去年9月，時任微衆銀行行長辭職，距其上任才10個月時間。

Regulators have cause to be nervous. The proliferation of online financial services in China has brought with it a wave of under-regulated lending practices and outright fraud.

監管機構有理由感到擔憂。中國互聯網金融服務的迅速擴張帶來了一波監管不足的借貸活動和徹頭徹尾的欺詐活動。

On the other hand, China’s banks, particularly the big four state lenders, are known to fiercely guard their turf.

另一方面，中國的銀行（尤其是四大銀行）以激烈捍衛自己的地盤而著稱。

Both regulators and China’s well-entrenched banks will need to adapt if these online lenders are to succeed. As is so often the case with new technologies in the Chinese economy, mobile payment platforms have grown despite, rather than because of, the government and state companies.

要讓那些互聯網銀行取得成功，監管機構和中國根基深厚的銀行都需要做出調整。中國經濟中的新技術往往都是頂着政府和國企的阻力、而不是在它們的幫助下發展起來的——移動支付平臺的情況就是如此。

Even the act of paying for dinner ends with a reminder of how far the state needs to come.

即便是支付晚餐賬單這件事最後也給人們提了個醒：政府要走的路還很長。

Having effortlessly used their mobiles to settle the bill, diners still need to wait for a machine to slowly print out the all-important fapiao, the official, government-issued invoice used to record taxable transactions in the economy.

在不費吹灰之力用手機買完單之後，食客仍需要等待機器緩慢地打印出重要的正規發票——由政府發行，用來記錄經濟中的計稅交易。