More than 580 million people made at least one mobile payment in China during 2018, up 10.7 per cent year-on-year, the country’s official news agency Xinhua reported.

Statistics quoted from the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) said 583 million people had used mobile payments during the year, this compared with 600 million users for wider online payments.

China is widely considered to be one of the leading countries in uptake of mobile payments, with the ecosystem dominated by Ant Financial-owned Alipay and numerous brands operated by games and messaging company Tencent, including WeChat Pay.

Both Tencent and Ant Financial have actively pursued a strategy of expanding their reach beyond mainland China, with the two companies signing deals with a range of retailers popular with its existing customer-base when travelling to other countries.

The latest figures from CNNIC state the two largest Chinese mobile payment brands were used in more than 40 territories outside of their home market in 2018.

In January analyst company Frost & Sullivan forecast mobile payment users in China would hit almost 1 billion by 2023.