Payment system UnionPay, gaining popularity in Australia

By Mozo Editorial · · 1 min read
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Have you noticed the increasing visibility and popularity of UnionPay in Australia?

With more and more merchants in Australia accepting UnionPay, you might have heard about it, but you might not know that it is actually one the largest bankcard schemes for both credit and debit card purchases worldwide.

According to the Nilson Report, UnionPay is tipped to grow by 51% between 2012 and 2017, whereas Visa and MasterCard, over the same period, are only expecting growth of between 28% and 26% respectively.

Who is UnionPay?

UnionPay was originally founded in Shanghai in 2002 and in just 15 years has expanded worldwide, currently used in 160 countries and accepted by 36 million merchants and over 2 million ATMs. More than 6 billion UnionPay cards have been issued so far.
Closer to home in Australia, 30,000 ATMs (90%) and over 600,000 POS terminals (70%) accept UnionPay cards.

Why is UnionPay good for Australian retailers?

The answer is simple. Chinese tourists are the fastest growing visitors to Australia, up 21.60% year on year. The majority pack UnionPay cards for their trip and on average spend almost $2,500 during their visit.

As a whole, Chinese tourists spend $7.7 billion annually, making UnionPay International an important business partner for local retailers and merchants in Australia.

In fact, research from the Commonwealth Bank shows that Chinese tourists are 20 times more likely to enter a business if they have a UnionPay logo displayed.

For more information on this growing payment system, visit the UnionPay International website here.