After Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, Shanghai ranks third as home to the largest group of online spenders on the Chinese mainland, said a new report released Tuesday by Alipay, a major online payment platform provider in the country.
An Alibaba Group subsidiary, Alipay, the nation's largest online payment platform provider, which is estimated to own roughly half of the third-party payment provider market with more than 650 million registered accounts nationwide, said that Shanghai shoppers spent an average of 10,100 yuan ($1595.8) per person last year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the company's online transactions. Guangdong shoppers each spent an average of 11,020 yuan last year, while every Zhejiang shopper shelled out an average of 11,000 yuan.
The first report of its kind released by Alipay also found that people born in the 1970s were the biggest spenders among the generations, with each shopper dropping an average of more than 15,000 yuan last year.
The largest group of the company's registered users, meanwhile, were also made up of young adults, who were born in the 1980s, said Zhu Jian, a press officer for Hangzhou-based Alipay.
"But somewhat surprisingly, Shanghai's older generations are among the most active in the country," he told the Global Times Tuesday. "Many of them in their 60s have incorporated Alipay into their daily lives, using our platform regularly, to carry out simple tasks like paying bills."
Shanghai users, in general, are also the most generous compared to other Chinese cities, the report added. Using the "Pay for your pal" function, people in Shanghai paid an average of 1,121 yuan for their friends last year, while those in the capital averaged 968 yuan in the same category.
Most people shopped online outside of regular work hours last year, with peak times for online payments recorded from 8 pm and 10 pm on weekends, the report added.
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