Shopping carnivals initiated by Chinese e-tailers are generating massive sales. China’s famous Cyber Monday (11 November) registered record sales of USD10 billion within 24 hours in 2014. Has China entered the age of digital payments? Spire Research and Consulting shared its insights, published on the US Consumer Electronics Association’s blog. Chinese e-commerce giants including Alibaba Group and JD.com offer huge discounts during such e-commerce shopping carnivals to propagate digital payment technology, to the massive acclaim of Chinese consumers. As China’s e-commerce market expands, third-party payment platforms lead the way. This space is dominated by Alipay (Alibaba), UnionPay, 99Bill and Tenpay (Tencent). The potential is evident from Alipay’s hike in transaction value to USD9 billion in 2014 in comparison to USD8 million in 2009. At the same time, payments are not only limited to the e-commerce realm but include mobile payments as well. These include E-wallet, re