The 2021 edition of the Payments Canada Summit was a true success! The virtual event, held from May 31 to June 4, 2021, brought together more than 2,000 participants—including 300 speakers—from the Canadian payments’ community to discuss a wide range of topics from the evolution of bill payments to cybersecurity, and the future of open banking. Amongst the speakers were OTT Pay’s Chief Growth Officer Martin McCann, Peter Wang, CTO of OTT Financial Group, and Timothy Yip, VP Marketing & e-Commerce at OTT Pay. Here’s a summary of what they talked about the conference:
China’s digital landscape:
- In China, 900 million people (65% of the population) use the e-wallet Alipay to pay for goods and services;
- 800 million Chinese people use WeChat Pay, the second most popular digital wallet option;
- Alipay has 1.3 billion actives users globally, while WeChat Pay sits at 1.2 billion.
Chinese e-wallet users in Canada:
- The Chinese population in Canada is about 1.77 million;
- Toronto’s population is 5.86 million and about 700,750 (12%) are Chinese Canadians;
- Between 2019 and 2020, new immigrants from China to Canada (including international students on a visa) increased from 141,790 to 116,935;
- There are about 48,000 Chinese international students in Canada spending between $20,000 and $50,000 on tuitions annually, and between $25,000 and $35,000 on living costs per year while studying;
- In 2018, 737,379 outbound Chinese tourists visited Canada and spent on average $2400 per person during their trip.
Retail, tourism, and digital payments:
- Today’s retail and tourism industries are extremely competitive, and merchants must be prepared to offer clients their preferred method of payment if they want to attract and retain them;
- Chinese consumers in Canada—new Chinese immigrants, tourists, and international students—are a substantial and lucrative market for Canadian merchants;
- Business owners in these industries looking to attract Chinese customers must make mobile payments their priority to stand out from their competitors.
OTT Pay’s digital payment expertise:
- A deep understanding of the Chinese consumer market, and of Chinese consumers’ behaviour in Canada;
- A robust mobile payment infrastructure and complete range of digital payment and e-Commerce products and solutions;
- A thorough understanding of how QR-based technology works and of e-wallet features;
- A long-standing partnership with Alipay, WeChat Pay, and UnionPay in Canada, allowing us to help merchants gain competitive advantage through customized marketing solutions that drive sales and increase loyalty.
OTT Pay’s recent launches for retail and tourism merchants:
The OTT Pay Destination Pass, designed to help our Canadian Attraction merchants to drive more visitors and sales. This initiative allows merchants to offer discounted attraction experience packages and gift cards to tourist attractions in major Canadian cities. OTT Pay will also curate the destination pass to include a limited number of popular attractions, targeting residents and overseas tourists who are planning to visit Canada after the pandemic;
Our National Mobile Payment Acceptance Program allowing customers to pay with WeChat Pay and UnionPay at 2,100 Esso™ and Mobil gas stations across Canada. This initiative comes after a successful pilot project OTT Pay previously launched in 25 Esso™ and Mobil locations in high-density Chinese neighbourhoods in B.C. and Ontario.
After four days of presentations, discussions, product launches and partnership announcements, the 2021 Payments Canada Summit came to an end with participants reflecting on the amazing progress made over the last six years when the conference was first created and energized with the desire to continue innovating and working together to modernize payments an create more opportunities for Canadian customers and businesses.
OTT Pay is committed to changing the way businesses and customers interact with money and with each other, and we felt right at home at the 2021 Payments Canada Summit. We’re proud to work alongside Canada’s payment leaders and share the technological knowledge and best practices that will allow us to keep innovating to create an outstanding user experience and better digital products and services for Canadians.
For a recap of the virtual event, click here.
To find out more about OTT Pay’s complete range of digital products and solutions, and to become an OTT Pay merchants, contact our Customer Support team at info@ottpay.com or call us at 1-800-688-9838.