It is Joseph’s first year in China. Worried about not having enough cash, he prepared lots of brand-new CNY 人民币 renminbi cash in advance. However, he was surprised to see that many passengers purchased goods by scanning QR code at the airport. This situation became more obvious when he went downtown. Things got “worse” when he found that he might be the only one who was still using cash, while one day he was queueing for a cup of bubble tea. After that“embarrassing” experience, Joseph could not wait to ask his Chinese classmates to assist him with activating Wechat Pay (微信支付 Weixin zhifu) . However, things did not go that smoothly at the beginning. He found those complicated Chinese characters and terms were annoying. “Without my Chinese classmates’ help, I wouldn’t have activated WechatPay successfully” he explained. But once his WeChat Pay had been activated, he found it so convenient to purchase goods anywhere—especially online shopping! “The most direct benefit for me is that I no longer have to bring my wallet with me.” Seemingly, mobile payment has made wallets outdated.

WeChat Pay has been popular for several years, as a mainstream purchase method in recent China. One of the possible reasons behind this boom is that the process behind it is not that complicated. Customers only need to display their transaction QR code (支付二维码 zhifu er wei ma) to clerks, and the clerk scans their QR code. Once a notice pops up on the screen, the deal is done! The QR code relates to customers’ bank accounts directly and the computer will automatically finish the payment from the bank account given. This process is called mobile payment, where WeChat Pay is one of the most popular ways to do it. It is really an unprecedented way to pay easily like this, especially for a foreigner who first comes to China.

Image credit: https://sampi.co/wechat-pay/

As Joseph’s life in China went on, he gradually found that mobile payment was so popular in China that few people purchased with cash, no matter which city it is. According to Joseph’s observation, mobile payments could almost replace wallets, even on the bus and subway, or in a hospital, because mobile payment makes everything so easy and convenient. “I think what makes mobile payment faster is that the complicated verifying process during purchasing is greatly simplified, compared to traditional credit cards. To verify one’s identity, mobile payment just requires a fingerprint, now even only with your face! I like this kind of new thing to me, as it makes my life easier and more convenient. I will not worry about losing my wallet again” Joseph explained.

Mobile payment now has dominated the market in China. By December 2018, the number of Chinese mobile phone users who also surf the Internet with cell phones had reached 817 million. 98.6% of Chinese mobile phone users also surf the Internet with their cell phones. At the same time, 71.4% of Chinese mobile phone users who also surf the Internet with cellphones use mobile payment. 1 In the near future, mobile payment is likely to replace traditional payment methods. This is because the proportion of mobile payments now has already greatly surpassed the proportion of other payment procedures, in some large cities, like Beijing and Shanghai. As reported, the value of China’s mobile payment transactions in 2018 reached RMB159.8 trillion (Alipay and Tencent Finance accounted for 52.1% and 37.3% of the transaction volume, respectively). 2

Although mobile payment brings people convenience, and many industries like online cab services DiDi, food delivery services (外卖 waimai), as well as other shared economics (renting services, like shared bikes) spring up due to the mobile payment boom, it is hard to deny that mobile payment leads to potential danger, like the leakage of privacy and telecommunications fraud. As previous news reported, somebody’s money was stolen from their bank account simply because they did not hide the transaction QR codes when they were not making a payment. The thief just scanned the QR code from their back and transferred money illegally. 3 From this perspective, mobile payments also seem to be risky.

Image credit: https://www.dealmoon.com/guide/927345

Having got used to mobile payment and life in Shanghai, Joseph gradually became doubtful and reflected: Why are QR codes everywhere? “It seems that most Chinese people don’t mind showing their QR codes in public, despite the fact that those QR codes might contain private data, some of which are even highly related to the bank account! Also, mobile payment tends to put the purchase in a dangerous position, compared to the more traditional way, say credit card, in America.” So, do Chinese people really desire convenience even more than privacy?

From the author’s perspective, the reason for Americans considering that Chinese people do not value privacy is the news reported by the Western media. But it turns out to be true sometimes. For example, when the author was attending the online courses offered by DKU faculty, once there was a request for recording the meeting, the professors would always ask whether students agreed or not. While in a Chinese traditional university, professors won’t usually ask for permission. As one of the author’s professors put it, “Americans tend to control everything that is related to themselves.” Another vivid example might be that when I install some English-version software or accessing some western websites, the privacy terms would always pop up first and saliently, while inChina, the policy terms are not indicated so well.

Unfortunately, these terrible telecommunication frauds have already happened for several years, and people have been suffering from it, which leads to Chinese people’s increasing awareness of the protection of privacy. Meanwhile, hackers may hack into those third-party organizations’ platforms and steal users’ data for illegal use, if users’ privacy is not well-protected. According to the author’s interviews with some Chinese students, the younger generation actually cares about privacy on the Internet: “While many users in China are using mobile payment, they are concerned about the safety of information transmission when using mobile payment and worry about the threat and inconvenience to consumers caused by theInternet or system problems in the payment process.” 6 So this demonstrates that Chinese people do actually care about privacy.

Image credit: cardconnect.com/launchpointe/payment-security/mobile-payment-security

So, why do Americans still think that Chinese people do not focus on privacy? The answer just hides inside the definition of “privacy” within different cultural backgrounds. Privacy is defined in Western culture as “freedom from interference or public.” 7 “The Western culture represented by the United States created the individual. The core of the values, that is, the individual—is based on the philosophy of self. Its main content is to believe in individual value, attach great importance to individual freedom… based on these facts, the western concept of privacy, which attaches great importance to individual privacy, has been formed.” 8 So it is understandable that Americans do hate those who break into their personal spaces, because it is not only unsafe for people’s wealth but also shows no respect to the individual, which is extremely unacceptable in an Americans’ mind. 

In contrast to Americans, Chinese people define privacy as “something that someone does not want to share.” 9 Since the traditional Chinese culture, like Confucianism, asks for the subjection to the authority, no privacy is left. Personal privacy will be regarded as something that needs to be hidden, which is shameful. Different from the western concept of privacy, something defined as privacy is not because one does not want outsiders to step into his/her territory, it is because what one does not want others to see is something shameful, inappropriate, or even evil in traditional opinions. But Chinese people emphasize the power of groups and families. As a result, the requirement to protect a family or a group’s privacy is much stronger. In general, the reason why Chinese people seem to “ignore” privacy while Americans tend to protect their privacy is that “privacy” has different meanings in two distinctive cultures.

Despite the facts mentioned above, mobile payment is still so popular in China. Why? Because it brings so much convenience. Wei-Chuan Chen, Chien-Wen Chen, and Wen-Kuo Chen assert that the main reasons why Chinese people love using mobile payment are convenience and compatibility, where compatibility refers to “the degree to which new technologies are consistent with customers’ previous life experiences, lifestyles, and needs.” 10 The use of new innovation must correspond to users’ previous lifestyles that they have got used to. In other words, the prevalence of mobile payment is based on the prevalence of mobile phones. People nowadays can hang out without wallets, but cannot hang out without mobile phones. Without mobile phones, mobile payment could not have become so widespread. Similarly, without exposing some of our privacy, we could not have such convenience and would lose the chance to experience something different, something that can be experienced only by mobile payment. For example, the purchase of train tickets. One cannot buy a train ticket unless he/she completes the real-name identification (实名制认证 shimingzhi renzheng), which requires customers to upload and verify their identification on the Internet. 

What’s more, sometimes Chinese people have to “share” their privacy to catch up with the trend, where a vivid example is online shopping. The whole process of online shopping is completed on the Internet, which means customers are required to upload and verify their privacy about the payment, and even about their home, in order to finish the purchase process. But online shopping has become a trend now, people who live in China can hardly avoid it. One may be“out” if he/she fails to catch up with the fashion. To secure safety, real-name identification has been popularized all around China. You can go almost nowhere and do nothing if you insist on not sharing any of your private data. It becomes unavoidable. Compared to the convenient life, sharing some of the privacy seems to be a kind of compromise. While enjoying a convenient and abundant life, one should also do something mandatory to take on the responsibility. Because of these reasons, Chinese people seem to “not care about” privacy in a foreigner’s eye. But the author thinks that uploading some private data does not mean Chinese people do not care about their privacy and they agree on the terms and conditions that all websites and Apps have given. It is just because sometimes they have no choice.

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-using-black-and-white-smartphone-and-holding-blue-card-230544/

Compared to America, more Chinese people are willing to accept mobile payment, whereas most Americans are not. Rajan asserts that “90% of (American) consumers are concerned about data privacy and security in mobile transactions, and see financial institutions in the best position to address these concerns.” 11 On the one hand, the Chinese government has enacted several laws to protect online consumers and merchants, after the prevalence of mobile payment in China. On the other hand, since mobile payment has not been popularized in the United States yet, the federal government is still exploring appropriate laws to protect e-commerce. The difference in the legislation between the two countries may enhance Chinese people’s confidence in mobile payment, resulting in more and more mobile payments, which could be perceived as Chinese people “not caring about their privacy.”

However, Chinese people are indeed more and more addicted to mobile payment, which may lead to severe privacy leakages. Is it a sign that Chinese people have already got used to such privacy leakages? Do they really “care” about or try to protect their privacy? The answer is yes. While Chinese people are enjoying the convenience that mobile payment brings, they worry about privacy leakage at the same time. They are currently dancing on a sharp blade. To better adapt to e-commerce, they have no choice but to accept mobile payment. However, since this is an open topic, to care or not care also depends on which perspective you take.