Chinese E-commerce Giants See 12-fold Growth in Digital Renminbi Usage During 2023 Spring Festival

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China’s top e-commerce giants have reported a surge in the usage of the digital renminbi to complete transactions during the 2023 Spring Festival as compared to last year’s Chinese New Year.

Data released by JD.com on January 30 indicates that during the Spring Festival period, user transactions using the digital renminbi increased 12-fold compared with the same period last year.

JD.com’s fellow e-commerce platform Meituan has also released data indicating that during the period from January 21 to January 27, the transaction amount for digital renminbi on its platform increased by more than six-fold compared with last year’s Spring Festival.

According to data from JD.com, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Shanghai are the most active cities for use of the digital renminbi to purchase New Year’s items.

Data from China’s e-commerce giants also highlights the role of the digital renminbi in spurring domestic consumption, often by means of discount or giveaway campaigns that are marketed using the traditional “red envelopes” employed for monetary gift-giving in China.

Meituan data indicates that during the holiday period from January 21 to January 27, consumers in digital renminbi trial regions around China spent money at more than 20,000 small, medium and micro-sized merchants on the platform after receiving digital RMB red envelopes or coupons from Meituan.