Sunday, January 01, 2012
At least initially, the concept of targeting China’s electronic payments market appears entirely viable: Last year, China surpassed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy after the United States; its gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to have risen by about 9.1 percent in 2011, and comparably so through at least the end of the decade, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Moreover, a population of about 1.3 billion would make China the world’s third-largest consumer market by 2025, according to worldwide business consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Further, credit card issuance to Chinese consumers remains on the upswing, with the number of account holders increasing from 11 million in 2004 to approximately 229 million by year-end 2011, reports The Datamonitor Group, a global market analysis organization.