Shanghai, July 19- Mobile payment has become one of the main payment methods with the popularity of smart phones in China. Food industry also has seen the rapid growth of mobile payment recently.

Yazuo Food & Beverage Data Research Institute recently released 2015 Food Industry Member Consumption Index in Shanghai. According to the report, the number of customers using mobile payment in mainland China continues to grow in just two months from November 2015 to January 2016.

Take AliPay for example. The proportion of monitored catering businesses’ member customers who choose AliPay rose from 0.2% to 6.7%. And the proportion of customers becoming new members of the monitored catering businesses through the mobile payment platform (Alipay) rose from 0.2% to 13%.

The report also pointed out that friends and family dinners become the main reason of dinning out, accounting for 37% and 19% respectively. While business banquets, affected by policy factors, only accounted for 9%.

Notably, traditional Chinese food is still the preferred choice for mainland consumers when dinning out. And Sichuan Food, according to the report, becomes the most popular Chinese food.