When the "beep" of bus card readers replaces cash change, and tap-and-go payments at supermarket checkouts eliminate the wait for password entry, password-free payment has become deeply integrated into the fabric of China's digital life. Born in 2015 as an innovation amid the rapid development of mobile payments, this function now covers numerous scenarios including transportation, e-commerce shopping, and daily services. Nearly 60% of mobile payment users have utilized it in their daily consumption. However, behind its widespread popularity for convenience, safeguarding security and achieving sustainable development have become an epochal proposition the industry must address.
Convenience Empowerment: An Efficiency Revolution in the Digital Economy
The rise of password-free payment essentially represents a restructuring of efficiency in consumption scenarios. Transactions under 1,000 yuan require no password entry or signature, shortening commute payments for buses and subways to seconds and significantly reducing checkout queues at supermarkets, thereby improving customer flow turnover for merchants. Supported by China's massive base of 1.029 billion online payment users, password-free payment has not only become a key carrier of convenient daily life but also the capillaries of the digital economy.
From UnionPay FlashPay to Alipay and WeChat's "tap-to-pay" services, technological iterations have continuously expanded the application scenarios of password-free payment. 76.5% of users opt for it when using public transportation, while its penetration rate reaches 54.9% on e-commerce platforms and over half in offline physical stores. This seamless payment experience not only lowers the psychological threshold for consumption decisions but also provides low-cost digital transformation solutions for micro and small enterprises, serving as a crucial pillar of China's global leadership in mobile payments.
Growing Pains: Problems and Challenges in Development
Despite its rapid expansion, password-free payment has exposed certain shortcomings. Some platforms previously engaged in practices such as pre-activating the function by default and providing opaque agreement terms. 16.9% of users reported having the service activated without their knowledge. Concealed and cumbersome cancellation processes are also common—some services require navigating multiple menu layers to terminate, with platforms even repeatedly attempting to retain users.
Security risks are among users' top concerns. Cases such as fraudulent charges after phone loss and small-value, high-frequency deductions due to account leaks have sparked public debate over whether "password-free" equals "risk-free." Elderly groups, with insufficient digital literacy, are more vulnerable to traps like default activation and automatic renewals, accounting for 28% of related disputes. These issues are not inherent flaws of the technology itself but phased challenges arising from inadequate synchronization of responsibility boundaries and risk prevention mechanisms during development.
Positive Breakthroughs: Regulating and Innovating to Fortify Security Defenses
In response to these development challenges, China is promoting the evolution of password-free payment toward greater standardization and security through multi-faceted collaboration involving regulatory guidance, technological innovation, and industry self-regulation. In November 2025, the Payment & Clearing Association of China issued a special initiative, explicitly prohibiting default activation and requiring the addition of a one-click cancellation function to safeguard users' right to know and right to choose from the source.
Technological innovation injects new momentum into security protection. The SIM card security solution achieves identity verification through hardware encryption, preventing payments even if the account is stolen; the AI risk control system can identify 13 types of abnormal transaction patterns, increasing the accuracy of fund interception to 98.6%. Meanwhile, mechanisms such as 72-hour lost card protection and 24-hour advance compensation for disputed transactions build a comprehensive rights protection system, successfully keeping user fund loss rates below 0.003‰.
User education and aging-friendly transformations are advancing in parallel. Payment platforms help elderly users clarify authorization scopes through prominent prompts and regular transaction notifications. The industry principle of "minimum necessity, informed consent, and revocability" has shifted password-free payment from "convenience first" to "balancing convenience and security."
The development trajectory of password-free payment epitomizes the high-quality development of China's digital economy—iterating through innovation and maturing through regulation. As technological innovation continues to expand the boundaries of convenience and regulatory standards steadily fortify security lines, password-free payment will surely achieve a dynamic balance between convenience and security. In the future, with the further maturity of technologies such as biometric identification and intelligent risk control, this payment innovation will better serve convenient daily life and digital economic development, writing a vivid practice of technology for good.
