STANSBERRY RESEARCH:
Your Entire Financial Life Is About to Change Irreversibly (Steve Sjuggerud, November 16, 2018)
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For access to the complete article: http://www.stansberryresearch.com/
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China is now a nearly 100% cashless society… at least in the major cities.
I’ve been traveling to China for decades. It wasn’t long ago that China was basically the opposite – an “all cash” society.
And then – in no time – it flipped. The cities went from almost all cash… to almost all mobile payments. No kidding.
China essentially skipped credit cards (or “leapfrogged” them, as Bob says). And it adopted smartphones at a lightning-fast pace … Our American “legacy” businesses (like the phone company) had no legacy in China… So as soon as a better way to communicate came along, the Chinese discarded the old systems without any sentimental attachment.
Now, to complete a payment in person, you just hold up your phone… Or you shop on the Internet with your mobile phone, not your credit card.
The cashless thing is not a novelty…
It’s part of an entirely new way of daily life.
And as long-time readers of True Wealth may remember… in China, all this revolves around one particular app. It’s called WeChat.
Let’s use a simple example of a night out with friends to see how it works:
- You send a WeChat group message to invite six friends to dinner.
- You go to the WeChat page for the restaurant to make a reservation.
- You share that reservation on WeChat with your dinner group.
- You book a ride to the restaurant using WeChat.
- There are no physical menus at the restaurant… You read them on WeChat.
- There is no waiter… You place your order into your phone, through WeChat.
- The restaurant doesn’t take cash or credit… You pay your bill at the end of a night through WeChat.
Outside of a server delivering the food to your table, and you talking with your friends at the restaurant, everything gets done on WeChat – on your mobile phone.
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