Soliciting handouts near a grocery store, Zhao Shenji, a slender man with shorn hair, made giving easy for Beijing residents accustomed to relying on their smartphones.

"Recommend using WeChat Pay," said a placard the beggar displayed.

It was a literal sign of the times. Payment via mobile-phone services such as WeChat is sweeping the country. After gaining a beachhead as a means to buy things online, mobile payments moved on tostore purchases and are fast becoming the way many people in China pay for just about everything.

That includes small personal debts. Richard Lau, a young management consultant waiting to get into the historic St. Michael's Cathedral in Qingdao one recent day, found he had no cash for the20-yuan admission, so he borrowed it from another man in line and immediately zapped him the amount by phone.

Behind the trend are internet titans Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., which are elbowing aside banks to take a growing role in daily commerce. Their success offers a glimpseof a future where technology firms drive innovations in finance just as they have in retailing, autos and the media.

Though the U.S. saw $112 billion of mobile payments in 2016, by a Forrester Research estimate, such payments in China totaled $9 trillion, according to iResearch Consulting Group, a Chinesefirm.

For Alibaba and Tencent, the payoff isn't just the transaction fees they make from merchants, typically 0.6%. It's also the consumer data collected, which can transform their apps into marketingplatforms for an expanding array of services, from bike sharing to travel.

WeChat Pay and Alipay are gaining attention in U.S. tourist centers after striking deals with hotels and resorts. A group of Chinese tourists recently dined at the Bacchanal Buffet at CaesarsPalace in Las Vegas, where the menu includes T-bone Australian lamb, chilled crab legs and handmade dim sum. They settled their bill with a smartphone.

To read the complete article (subscription required), see:
The Cashless Society Has Arrived- Only It's in China(https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-mobile-payment-boom-changes-how-people-shop-borrow-even-panhandle-1515000570)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW YORK CITY CREEPING TOWARD CASHLESSNESS (http://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n54a30.html)