More and more Chinese are using payment platforms when shopping, thanks to mainlanders’ increasing affluence and vast usage of social payments such as WeChat Pay.

That’s according to business intelligence provider Juniper, which says that revenue from payment platforms will grow from US$106 billion in 2019 to $158 billion by 2024. And it forecasts that China will account for more than 50 per cent of it.

Banking on this forecast, California-headquartered PayPal has acquired 70 per cent equity interest in GoPay, making it the first foreign payment platform to provide online payment services in China.

The fast growth in payment platforms industry in China is also attributed to the increasing demand for e-commerce services. Market research company eMarketer said in June that the top global e-commerce market in 2019 will be China, with $1.9 trillion in e-commerce sales, more than three times greater than the US with $586.9 billion.

To sustain the growth momentum, Juniper recommends payment platforms providers diversify their solutions by offering services such as store-management solutions, customer insights and merchant capital finance.

“The market will move beyond solely offering payments in the near future by expanding to new services. These value-added services will enable payment platforms to differentiate themselves in a saturated market and build out new business models to allow vendors to generate additional revenue,” says research author Morgane Kimmich.