The proportion of mobile phone banking clients among mobile phone Internet users has considerably increased and the improvement in the group structure of mobile phone banking clients implies the rosy prospects of the mobile phone banking business, according to the "China's Mobile Phone Banking Client Report" recently released by leading domestic mobile phone application service platform 3G.cn.
According to the results of a sample survey, more than 52 percent of mobile phone Internet users had used mobile banking services by the end of February 2011, a considerable increase from the proportion of 37 percent in July 2010. Middle-aged mobile phone Internet users are gradually becoming the primary group of clients, and the average personal income of mobile phone banking clients is also higher than the average in July 2010.
In terms of the most popular mobile phone banking service, student clients prefer to use mobile phone banking services to pay bills; cadres at government organs or state-owned enterprises prefer to transfer money; and medium and high-level executives at foreign and private firms as well as private firm owners prefer to use online credit card services.
The survey shows that more than half of mobile phones banking clients expect banks to offer better services at their own online shopping malls. More than 64 percent of mobile phone banking clients have purchased products from bank-run online shopping malls. Of them, 11 percent often buy products from bank-run shopping malls, 31 percent occasionally do and 22 percent rarely do. Cadres at government organs or state-owned enterprises, medium and high-level executives at foreign and private firms as well as private firm owners often buy products from bank-run shopping malls.
As for different mobile payment methods, more than 56 percent of respondents preferred to pay on WAP pages, and more than 44 percent chose to make payments via phone apps. More than 17 percent would like to pay by swiping their mobile phones, and nearly 16 percent found the three methods all acceptable.
Users tend to only spend a small sum of money when using a mobile phone to make payments. More than 70 percent of respondents have spent a maximum of 1,000 yuan when making a mobile payment, of whom nearly half made payments no more than 500 yuan. More than 10 percent of users have made mobile payments in excess of 10,000 yuan.
The statistics in the report are all based on the questionnaire survey of more than 20,000 mobile banking users in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions conducted by 3G.cn.
Zhang Xiangdong, CEO of 3G.cn, said surfing the Internet through mobile phones is becoming more and more popular. Mobile Internet companies are making efforts to provide better and better services, so Chinese consumers have become increasingly accustomed to using mobile phones to deal with daily affairs.
On the other hand, banks are also actively promoting their mobile banking business by improving user experience and introducing preferential policies. All factors have jointly helped the mobile banking business move into the fast lane.
