China prepaid market may offer unimaginable opportunities

According to a Mercator Advisory Group report, China's prepaid card market is growing rapidly despite it going widely unnoticed by the worldwide payments industry. With a major "reshuffling" underway in the market, significant opportunities might arise for global players, Mercator said.

In Prepaid Card Market in China 2011, Terry Xie, Director of Mercator's International Advisory Service and principal analyst on the report, commented, "The market opportunities for prepaid cards in China are beyond many people's imagination. In 2009, China was already the world's second largest prepaid card market, with over US$200 billion sales, surpassed only by the U.S. And the market is still growing rapidly today."

Mercator calculates that the total funds loaded on prepaid cards in China has risen from $182.6 billion in 2008 to $241.5 billion in 2010. Xie said the market is unique; economic, social and regulatory factors should be investigated before prepaid card providers enter the market. Mercator charts the market across 11 categories, which include incentive, game, wireless phone-time and campus cards.

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