WeChat Pay, the most popular mobile payment service in China, posted continued gains in 2019, with the value of retail transactions surging and users making an average of 5.8 purchases per month, China Daily reported.

A joint study by WeChat operator Tencent with Tsinghua University’s Institute for Global Industry, found transaction value jumped 62 per cent year-on-year to CNY8 trillion ($1.16 trillion), with the number of active monthly users increasing 6 per cent to 1.15 billion.

In a statement, Tencent said the transaction value generated on its mini programmes (sub-applications within the WeChat ecosystem) topped CNY800 billion, an increase of 160 per cent.

The company said it offers cross-border payment service in more than 60 markets. Nearly 80 per cent of consumers in China use WeChat, and the company said the number of transactions settled on WeChat Pay tripled between 2017 and 2019.