While cash is still king in Indonesia, China has made significant advancements in enabling a cashless society.

Early Friday morning in Beijing, commuters swarmed the Sanyuanqiao train station, most traveling to work, while others to school.

Near the station, a food and beverage vendor was busy serving customers, mostly commuters buying breakfast to eat on the go.

One man orders a hotdog from the vendor. To pay for his breakfast, he merely used his smartphone and scanned the vendor’s Quick Response (QR) code.

Just like that, the payment was made, involving neither cash nor card in the process.

What would seem like something odd in Indonesia was a usual sight in China, where customers only need their smartphone to settle everyday transactions.

With systems like Alipay and WeChat Pay, the two biggest mobile payment systems in China, linked to a bank account, payments can be made by scanning QR codes.

“I just need my phone with me every day. Without my phone, I can do nothing,” said Alex Lu, a 23-year-old private employee living in Beijing.

She said the cashless habit was supported by the many stores that provide QR codes.

According to Alex, most stores cater to both Alipay and WeChat Pay users. “It’s a little bit awkward when I go to a store that only takes cash,” she said.

According to data from the Payment and Clearing Association of China, the number of transactions made through non-banking mobile payment apps increased from 3.7 billion in 2013 to more than 97 billion in 2016.

Unlike China, the cashless movement in Indonesia is still in its an early phases.

Instruments such as e-money and mobile banking are still more popular and commonly used compared to QR codes.

Muhammad Afif Khoiruddin, 29, a private employee in Blitar, East Java, said up to 80 percent of his monthly expenditure was cashless.

He uses various payment instruments for different needs, from debit and credit cards to e-money and mobile banking.

Although cashless payments are more effective than cash, Afif said the numerous instruments they required made the method less convenient. “It would be better if there were less instruments. It would be great if we have only one app for all kinds of cashless transactions,” he said.

While several banks, such as private lender BCA and state-owned lender BNI have introduced QR code-based payment systems, they are still not commonly used.

BCA, BNI and telecommunications operator Telkomsel have also introduced other payment systems as an alternative to QR codes. Unfortunately, not many vendors accept such payments.

Homegrown ride-hailing app Go-Jek through its payment service Go-Pay also uses the QR code payment system, which can be used at various food and beverage vendors across Jakarta.

According to a survey by Visa Worldwide on Indonesia’s consumer behavior, 76 percent of Indonesian respondents were ready to go fully cashless for a day.

Some 85 percent of Indonesians made transactions for different needs, such as shopping and ordering food, only through their smartphones.

Meanwhile, only half of the 57 percent of respondents who were familiar with QR code payment systems as a new payment instrument were interested in using it.

The amount of cashless transaction in Indonesia has increased thanks to e-money transactions, Bank Indonesia’s (BI) head of payment system policy department Onny Widjanarko said recently.

“From December 2017 to March this year, e-money transaction grew by 361 percent. It’s incredible. I believe that slowly but surely, we are going fully cashless,” he said.

BI data showed that the nationwide e-money transaction value reached Rp 12.37 trillion (US$870.2 million) in 2017, up from Rp 7.06 trillion in 2016, Rp 5.28 trillion in 2015 and Rp 3.3 trillion in 2014.

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