Nearly 30% of respondents believe that digital renminbi is “another form of Alipay and WeChat payment.”
Original title: “526 Questionnaires: How much does the public know about digital RMB, and how much acceptance will it have”
Written by: Ye Yinghe Source: The Paper
As tens of thousands of people in Shenzhen, Suzhou and other places participated in the digital renminbi red envelope test, the discussion about digital renminbi continued to heat up. When experts and scholars talk about digital renminbi and continue to widen the boundaries of imagination, there may be a question: how much do ordinary people know about digital renminbi? How do they view the digital renminbi?
In order to further understand the general public’s perception and acceptance of digital RMB, The Paper designed relevant questionnaires and distributed them through Internet channels. A total of 526 valid questionnaires were collected, of which 55.89% were women and 44.11% were men. It should be noted that among the respondents in this questionnaire, the proportions of undergraduate, postgraduate and above are 30.04% and 24.71% respectively, which is higher than the national level.
From these 526 questionnaires, we may be able to get a glimpse of the leopard and trace the general public’s general understanding of the digital renminbi.
Nearly 30% of respondents believe that digital renminbi is “another form of Alipay and WeChat payment”
According to the definition given by Mu Changchun, Director of the Central Bank’s Institute of Data Science and Technology, the digital renminbi (DC/EP) refers to the digital form of legal tender issued by the People’s Bank of China, which is designated by the operating agency (Editor’s note: currently the six largest state-owned banks) Participate in operations and exchange to the public. Based on the generalized account system, it supports the loose coupling function of bank accounts, which is equivalent to banknotes and coins, has value characteristics and legal compensation, and supports controllable anonymity.
The questionnaire data shows that 51.52% of the respondents chose the digital renminbi as “digital cash with a certain degree of anonymity”, which is consistent with the official definition. 29.85% of the respondents believe that the digital renminbi is “another form of Alipay, WeChat “Pay”, and 17.87% of the respondents did not know what digital RMB is.
Mu Changchun once stated at the 2nd Bund Finance Summit that WeChat, Alipay and digital renminbi are not in the same dimension. WeChat and Alipay are financial infrastructures and wallets, while digital renminbi is a payment tool and the content of the wallet. In the electronic payment scenario, the wallets of WeChat and Alipay contain commercial bank deposit currencies. After the digital renminbi is issued, everyone can still use WeChat and Alipay to pay, but the contents of the wallet add central bank currency. At the same time, Tencent and Ant’s respective commercial banks are also operating institutions, so there is no competition with digital RMB.
Judging from the current pilot situation, the designated institutions only have six state-owned banks for the time being, that is, users can choose the digital renminbi wallet provided by the six major banks and provide the service of redeeming the digital renminbi.
Figure 1 Respondents’ understanding of the concept of digital RMB
If divided by gender, men seem to know more about the digital renminbi.
In the 526 questionnaires, the proportion of men who chose “digital cash, with a certain degree of anonymity” (64.2%) was significantly higher than that of women (41.5%), and the proportion of women who chose not to understand the digital RMB (23.8%) was also higher than that of men ( 10.3%), the proportion of women who think digital renminbi is “another form of Alipay and WeChat payment” is also higher.
Figure 2 Respondents of different genders’ understanding of the concept of digital RMB
Respondents’ understanding of digital renminbi is highly correlated with academic qualifications. The higher the degree of education, the fewer people who don’t know the digital renminbi. The proportion of respondents with a primary school education and below who don’t know the digital renminbi is as high as 75%, while those with a master’s degree or above believe that the digital renminbi is “digital cash.” , With a certain degree of anonymity,” the proportion is as high as 68.5%.
Figure 3 Respondents with different educational backgrounds’ understanding of the concept of digital RMB
Nearly 60% of respondents did not know that digital RMB has the advantage of “dual offline payment”
Compared with existing payment tools, one of the biggest advantages and features of digital renminbi is the “dual offline payment”, that is, both parties in the transaction can pay even without the Internet. But for this advantage, more than half of the respondents did not know, the proportion reached 59.7%.
Figure 4 Respondents’ understanding of the “offline payment” function of digital RMB
Among them, 54.7% of men know about this function, while 71.1% of women do not know that digital RMB can be “paid offline”.
Figure 5 Respondents of different genders’ understanding of the “offline payment” function of digital RMB
The proportion of people who know that digital renminbi can be “offline payment” has also increased with the increase of academic qualifications. 56.2% of the respondents with master’s degree and above know that digital renminbi can be “offline payment”, while those in elementary school and below have 75. % do not know.
Figure 6 Respondents with different educational backgrounds’ understanding of the digital RMB “offline payment” function
In addition, among the respondents who knew that digital renminbi has the function of “offline payment”, 69.3% believed that digital renminbi is “digital cash with a certain degree of anonymity.” The proportion of respondents who do not know Only 39.5%.
Figure 7 Whether the respondents who know the digital renminbi “offline payment” function understand the concept of digital renminbi
More than half believe that the digital renminbi was launched to conform to the development trend of the times, and 24% believe that it was to break the monopoly of Alipay and WeChat
At the beginning of the establishment of the central bank digital currency research team in 2014, from concept to pilot, from theory to practice, China’s central bank digital currency has gone through six years. And the recent massive double twelve digital renminbi red envelope pilot in Suzhou has added a sense of proximity.
Why launch a digital RMB?
Among the four options given by The Paper (see Figure 8 for details), 51% of respondents believe that the implementation of the digital renminbi is to follow the trend of the times.
In Suzhou, a clerk at a delicatessen told The Paper News reporter: “For the government and banks, they must also follow the trend of the times. Some adjustments must be made. To follow the progress of the times, it is impossible to always use credit cards. Cash is now already. not enough.”
The proportions of “breaking the monopoly of Alipay and WeChat” and “resisting cross-border digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Libra” are relatively close, at 24% and 23% respectively.
Figure 8 Respondents’ perceptions of the reasons for the introduction of digital RMB
Earlier, some experts also pointed out to The Paper that the reason for the implementation of digital renminbi was related to “breaking the monopoly of Alipay and WeChat.”
Sun Yang, a researcher at the Suning Institute of Financial Research, told The Paper, “Analyzed in terms of substance and patents, the purpose is to completely reshuffle the payment market.”
Wang Zhicheng, associate professor of finance at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, told The Paper that new Internet companies have taken advantage of technology to occupy the payment market, while large state-owned banks have also tried to enter the market in recent years. However, because of user habits and other results, the results are not obvious. It’s a digital currency, and antitrust is a boost.”
He also believes that the implementation of the digital renminbi has international and domestic motivations. The international motivation is the main one, and the domestic motivation is secondary. The international motivation is that once Libra is launched, it may be very corrosive to the legal currency of other countries.
Bitcoin is an encrypted currency based on cryptography and a decentralized transmission mode based on blockchain technology. Founded in 2009 by the founder of Bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Libra is a borderless digital currency planned to be launched by the management association led by the social giant Facebook.
From the perspective of age, the younger the age, the higher the proportion of choosing “resistance against cross-border digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Libra”.
55% of respondents believe that digital RMB will be launched within 1-3 years
In the face of the digital renminbi that is “ready to come out”, the masses have strong confidence. 55.13% of the respondents believe that the digital renminbi will be launched within 1-3 years, 20.72% of the respondents believe that it will be launched within 3-5 years, and the proportion of respondents who choose to believe that the digital renminbi will be launched within one year is 14.64 %.
Figure 9 Respondents’ predictions on the launch time of digital RMB
“If it works, it won’t be long. For example, if it is possible to test in Suzhou, it will definitely not be the bottom of the box.” During a visit to the digital RMB red envelope pilot in Suzhou, Suzhou citizen Ms. Li told The Paper.
In terms of age, people aged 45-55 are most confident about the launch of the digital renminbi in a short period of time. 81.7% believe it will be launched within 3 years, while those over 55 are the most conservative and believe it will Only 54.2% have been launched within 3 years.
Figure 10: Respondents of different ages’ predictions on the launch time of digital RMB
Although they have never used digital renminbi, nearly half of the respondents believe that the experience should be similar to that of Alipay and WeChat
Mu Changchun pointed out that WeChat, Alipay and digital renminbi are not in the same dimension. WeChat and Alipay are financial infrastructures and wallets, while digital renminbi is a payment tool and the content of the wallet.
Nevertheless, the emergence of digital renminbi wallets may have an impact on the payment system of the “two-part world”.
The results of the questionnaire show that most of the respondents have not tried digital renminbi, and those who have not used digital renminbi but guess their experience is similar to Alipay and WeChat payment accounted for 49.24%, almost half of the respondents. Only 11.59% of the respondents have used digital renminbi. Among them, 40.98% believe that there is no difference between digital renminbi payment and WeChat Pay and Alipay experience, while 40.98% believe that Alipay and WeChat Pay are better to use. %.
Figure 11 Respondents’ perception of the use of digital RMB compared with Alipay and WeChat payment
In terms of age, those under the age of 25 who “have never used digital renminbi, but think it should be similar” accounted for the highest proportion of respondents, while only 16.7% were over 55. It is worth noting that 41.7% of the respondents who “have never used digital renminbi, but think digital renminbi are better” over 55 years old, are far higher than other age groups.
Figure 12: Respondents of different ages’ perceptions of the use of digital renminbi compared with Alipay and WeChat payment
Over 70% of respondents have privacy concerns when using Alipay and WeChat Pay
In Internet use. “Privacy and security issues” always attract attention. The survey results show that 71.43% of respondents have privacy concerns when using Alipay and WeChat Pay.
Figure 13: Privacy concerns of respondents when using Alipay and WeChat payment
According to questionnaire data, people aged 45-55 value privacy security the most. 83.7% of them have privacy concerns when using Alipay and WeChat Pay, while those under 25 account for the least, 61%.
Figure 14 The privacy concerns of respondents of different ages when using Alipay and WeChat payment
As for the digital renminbi, it is characterized by “controllable anonymity,” which means a certain degree of anonymity. For this feature, 44.57% of the respondents chose to believe it, 40.38% of the respondents who did not know this feature, and 15.05% of the respondents who chose not to believe it.
A banker told The Paper: “How can it be anonymous? Whoever controls it will have super authority.”
Figure 15 Respondents’ belief in the “controllable anonymity” of digital RMB
The older the person, the higher the proportion of respondents who believe that the digital RMB can be controlled and anonymous. The percentage of people over 55 who believe in controllable anonymity is as high as 83.3%.
Figure 16 Respondents of different ages believe in the “controllable anonymity” of digital RMB
In terms of academic qualifications, among the graduate students and above, the proportion of people who do not believe that digital renminbi can be controlled and anonymous is the highest, reaching 33.8%, while the number of respondents with a primary school and below who choose this option is 0.
Figure 17: Respondents with different educational backgrounds believe in the “controllable anonymity” of digital RMB
Over 42% of respondents said they would use digital RMB wallet, Alipay, WeChat and other payment methods at the same time
If the digital renminbi is launched, consumers may face the difficulty of choosing whether to pay with digital renminbi or Alipay or WeChat. 42.59% of the respondents said they would use these payment methods at the same time, 26.05% of the respondents thought it would depend on the situation, 24.33% of the respondents chose to use a digital RMB wallet instead of Alipay and WeChat payment, only 7.03% of the respondents were clear Will not use digital renminbi wallet to replace Alipay, WeChat payment.
Figure 18 Respondents’ willingness to use digital RMB wallets in the future
From the results of the questionnaire, the willingness of the elderly to use digital renminbi is significantly higher than that of the younger ones. The proportion of respondents over 55 who choose to “use digital renminbi instead of Alipay and WeChat Pay” is as high as 37.5%, and this proportion is 25 years old. Only 7.3% of the following population.
However, in the on-the-spot street gathering of The Paper, many interviewees believe that young people will accept digital renminbi faster. A 58-year-old Suzhou taxi driver told The Paper: “I’m old, and I don’t know this kind of thing. I didn’t use Alipay or WeChat before, but now everyone pays for it in the car and can’t use it. Do it at a young age, and stop doing it at an older age.”
Figure 19 The willingness of respondents of different ages to use digital RMB wallets in the future
Among those with a master’s degree or above, those who chose “simultaneous use” accounted for the highest proportion, accounting for 45.4%, which is only 25% of those with a primary school degree or below. It is worth noting that the proportion of respondents who choose “will not use digital RMB wallets instead of Alipay and WeChat Pay” is also the highest among the graduates and above, reaching 14.6%.
Figure 20: Respondents with different educational backgrounds’ willingness to use digital RMB wallets in the future
Source link: www.thepaper.cn
