E-commerce company JD.com accepted payments in China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) at a local mass buying event.
JD.com accepted digital yuan (e-CNY) for payment in its e-commerce app for the Singles’ Day promotion period that began on October 31 and ended on November 11, the company confirmed on Thursday.
Singles’ Day is an unofficial shopping party in the country that also celebrates people who are not in a romantic relationship.
“100,000 people have used e-CNY on the JD.com app during the Singles Day promotion period starting today”a JD.com spokesperson told Cointelegraph.
“We will continue to work with related parties to explore the application.”the spokesperson added. The representative declined to specify the value of the e-CNY processed during the promotion.
The representative noted that JD.com became the first Chinese e-commerce company to accept e-CNY in December 2020. Up to 450,000 customers used e-CNY to make payments on the JD.com app from December 11 of last year to June 18, 2021, with total sales in e-CNY exceeding 100 million yuan ($ 15.6 million), the spokesperson said.
Founded in 1998, JD.com is a major e-commerce company in China, which ranks as the largest online retailer in China, as well as being the “China’s largest Internet company by revenue”. The company has been actively adopting China’s CBDC, debuting with the digital yuan for payment of wages in April 2021.
After implementing the first CBDC tests in 2020, The People’s Bank of China has been actively promoting the use of its digital currency in the country. As of October 2021, more than 140 million people have registered yuan digital accounts, with nearly $ 10 billion spent on e-CNY even though the CBDC has not been officially launched until now.
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