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China is back from a two-month-long summer holiday, during which millions of Chinese travelled abroad for pleasure. With Alipay’s growing presence outside of the Chinese mainland,Alipay overseas spending skyrocketed this summer as compared with last year’s figures.*

We’d like to share a few of this year’s most eye-catching data points with you:

  • Alipay processed 2.6 times as many in-store overseas transactions this summer as compared to the number of overseas transactions last summer.
  • Asia continued to dominate the list of Top 10 countries and regions in terms of summertime overseas Alipay transactions. Hong Kong topped the list, followed by Thailand and South Korea.
Top 10 countries and regions by Alipay transaction volume
2018   2017
Hong Kong 1 Thailand
Thailand 2 Hong Kong
South Korea 3 South Korea
Japan 4 Japan
Macau 5 Macau
Australia 6 Taiwan
Singapore 7 Australia
Taiwan 8 Singapore
Malaysia 9 United States
United States 10 Malaysia

  • In Singapore, the average spending per Alipay user was 1759.13 RMB (approx. 352.35 SGD) in the summer of 2018. This was a 32 percent average increase in spending per Alipay user and a 320 percent total increase in spending for the same period in 2017.
  • In Malaysia, the average spending per Alipay user was 1528.28 RMB (approx. 306.23 SGD) in the summer of 2018. This was a 106 percent average increase in spending per Alipay user and a 511 percent total increase in spending for the same period in 2017.
  • In Thailand, the average spending per Alipay user was 2094.40 RMB (approx. 419.67 SGD) in the summer of 2018. This was a 19 percent average increase in spending per Alipay user and a 104 percent total increase in spending for the same period in 2017.
  • The number of Alipay transactions in Russia increased by over 5000 percent, as Chinese travelers flocked there in July for the FIFA World Cup.
  • Of the 80+ airports that support instant tax refunds via Alipay, airports in South Korea recorded the highest amount of tax refunded, followed by airports in Europe.

*The two-month summer holiday fell between 1 July and 31 August in both 2018 and 2017.