China UnionPay Boasts 8 Million Mobile Phone Payment Users

China UnionPay says that its mobile phone payment service is growing rapidly with a total user population already topping eight million.

By October 2007, China UnionPay says it had opened mobile phone payment services in 21 provinces and cities across China with a total user population of over eight million. The company's total transaction volume also reached RMB8 billion in the first ten months of this year.

Mobile phone payment is a financial service jointly launched among China UnionPay, commercial banks and the mobile service operators. By joining users' mobile phone numbers with that of their bank accounts, the service turns mobile phones into a portable POS and makes possible for users to fulfill payment for various services like their gas fee and air ticket booking so that they don't have to stand in the long queue at the banks.