Mission Impossible: Mobile Payments Make It Impossible to Rob A Store in China

The second largest economy in the world, China, is rapidly changing:

Recently two young men tried to rob a convenience store in China. They got in their disguises, gathered their weapons and drove in the middle of the night to a local convenience store. When they demanded the owner open the register – there was no cash there.

Why?

Because China is now increasingly relying on "手机支付 (shǒujī zhīfù)" mobile payments.

China is the second largest economy in the world, and it is leading every other country on earth in the mobile payments industry. China's use of mobile payments was 50 times greater than the US in 2016 and is now a $5.5 trillion dollar industry. Now people are paying with their phones and store owners are collecting not cash, but QR codes.

Popular Mobile Payments

The most popular mobile payments in China are:

1. 微信支付 (wēixìn zhīfù) WeChat Pay
微信 (wēixìn) WeChat, is a social media (instant messaging, commerce and payment services) application developed by Tencent, who is now gaining a lot of momentum in the market.

2. 支付宝支付 (zhīfùbǎo zhīfù) Alipay
支付宝 (zhīfùbǎo) Alipay (a Web payment processing service founded by Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce company who specializes in business-to-business trades). Alibaba launched in 2004, and is similar to Paypal in its services to facilitate payments.

支付 (zhīfù): pay (money); defray; payment.

These mobile payment methods are now available all throughout China—at restaurants, supermarkets, clothing stores and convenience stores.

Yes, Even Starbucks!

Starbucks in China now accepts WeChat pay in its China stores.

Don't Bring Your Wallet, Just Bring Your Phone!

"微信支付 (wēixìn zhīfù) WeChat Pay" and "支付宝支付 (zhīfùbǎo zhīfù) Alipay" are everywhere in China. Almost all stores now offer 微信支付 (wēixìn zhīfù) WeChat Pay" and "支付宝支付 (zhīfùbǎo zhīfù) Alipay to customers.

My good Chinese friends always tells me: "We don't need to bring our wallets anymore; we just take our phones!

Ready to Practice? Click "Read More" to start now!

I'm a Chinese language student in Beijing. I'm surrounded by other non-Chinese learners of Mandarin throughout my day and also during class time. Us students have precious little time for one-on-one feedback with our native Chinese teachers about our speaking. Therefore, we often fall back and rely on each other to give advice on our speaking. As Chinese learners know, it's not always wise to take Chinese speaking advice from non-Chinese due to the subtleness of the speaking tones. Likewise, if you're non-native, maybe it's not good to guide other students on their speaking.

We may have good intentions- just trying to help, or 帮忙 (bāngmáng), but in the end we may "do more harm than good", or as we say in Chinese "帮倒忙 (bāng dàománg)", trying to help but doing harm in the process.

帮 (bāng) = to assist; to support; to help.
倒 (dào) = to fall; to fail; reverse.
忙 (máng) = busy; hasten; hurry.

Someone who has good intentions and is trying to help "帮忙 (bāngmáng)" may actually end up making things worse "帮倒忙 (bāng dàománg)".

Examples of how to use "帮倒忙(bāng dàománg)" in a sentence:

Tā běnlái xiǎng bāngmáng, dàn shíjì shàng què shì zài bāng dào máng.
他 本来 想 帮忙， 但 实际 上 却 是 在 帮 倒 忙。
No doubt he means to help, but in fact he just gets in the way.

Wǒ shénme dōu bùdǒng, qù le kěnéng huì bāng dàománg.
我 什么 都 不懂， 去 了 可能 会 帮 倒忙。
I don't know anything. I may cause more trouble if I try to do something.

So, just like us foreign Chinese language students "helping" one other out and often passing along subtle mistakes in our Mandarin speaking, it's possible that sometimes by trying to do good, you may actually do harm, despite your best intentions!

Quiz:

A. Recommending some good Mandarin Chinese movies to watch
B. Providing uncertain feedback and advice on Chinese speaking tones when the native-speaking Chinese teacher is not there to help
C. Taking a bike share to Chinese class together
D. Joining a study group with a native-speaking Chinese teacher
See Answer