With the digital yuan (pilot) app now widely available, pilots expanding steadily and application scenes multiplying, the digital yuan is entering everyday life at speed. Industry watchers see this as a sign that the currency has found a better fit with high-frequency consumer scenes, serving the real economy while improving inclusiveness and availability.
Instant payment for Bing Dwen Dwen
During this year’s Spring Festival, consumers in 12 pilot cities and regions used the digital yuan across online and offline scenes – its first full participation in the holiday shopping season, and a strong showing.
Since the pilot app launched in early 2022, its sub-wallets can be pushed to more than 50 platforms including Meituan, JD, Yitongxing, Didi, Tmall Supermarket, Ctrip, SF Express, the State Grid online service and iQiyi, covering food, entertainment, transport and daily shopping. Meituan data shows that daily digital-yuan transaction volume during the seven-day holiday rose 56.40% from the week before the festival, and transaction value rose 68.54%.
The Winter Olympics became a new showcase. Contactless payment functions and novel operations drew wide interest from domestic and foreign consumers alike. At the licensed merchandise store in Beijing’s Wangfujing, more and more shoppers chose digital yuan payments; one consumer said it was the fastest option – a matter of seconds to buy the popular Bing Dwen Dwen mascot.
To make the currency easy to use during the Games, authorities pushed for full coverage across bank acceptance, merchant service and personal payment ends, extending digital yuan scenes to 403,000 locations covering food, lodging, transport, tourism, shopping and entertainment. Download flows for foreign users were simplified: iPhone users with a China-region Apple ID can register with an overseas phone number and install the app from the App Store, while Android users download from the official page. The app now supports wallet registration with phone numbers from nearly 100 participating countries and regions.
A new traffic entry for small businesses
Payment methods such as tap-to-pay, QR codes and online purchases meet pandemic-era contactless requirements while giving many small businesses a new traffic entry point.
Pan Helin, executive dean of the Digital Economy Research Institute at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, noted the digital yuan’s twin advantages: security that protects personal information, and convenience – including offline transactions, which proved useful during the pandemic.
Wang Pengbo, a senior financial analyst at Botong Consulting, said usage on Meituan food delivery and grocery scenes shows the full-scale test phase is working: the underlying technology now handles settlement needs across different merchants, and the currency is binding to more high-frequency life scenes, supporting small-business growth.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at China Merchants Union Consumer Finance, said full-scene adoption helps accelerate pilots and payment interoperability, and that the development and pilot work is ultimately meant to serve the real economy and everyday life.
Outlook
A People’s Bank of China official said at a recent press briefing that pilots will deepen in retail, utility payments and government services, so that more enterprises and individuals can feel the value of the digital yuan.
Pan Helin added that since the digital yuan can already replace some cash use, cross-border usage is a direction worth exploring beyond domestic scenes.
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