這是李英豪在北京日常的一天：用打車應用程式召的士上班。開會，其間輕觸手機，四杯拿鐵從樓下咖啡店直送入會議室。午餐付款掃描賬單二維碼，拉麵打了八折。回辦公室見新同事，並叫秘書用手機幫她訂製名片。回家後右手拿着電視遙控，左手拇指買了張明天飛香港的機票。

李英豪不止是以智能電話包辦衣食住行的普通八十後，他正是近年帶動中國人改變消費習慣的領頭人物。

他是土生土長的香港人，2011年獨闖北京創立「錢方」，支援中國數以百萬的小商戶接受新興的手機支付形式。

每次交易時，商戶用「錢方」的手機應用程式生成應付金額的二維碼，掃描顧客手機的付款碼，即實現移動支付與收款。「一隻手掌拍不響。即使科技巨頭設計了多便利的手機錢包，也要店舖有系統能夠收款才成事。」他自信滿滿地解釋「錢方」的角色。

他說香港人和內地人一樣機不離手，但最大的差別在於電子交易。「大家都用智能電話看影片、打機、聽音樂、聊天，但香港在電子交易方面接近零。國內一線城市的八九十後，已經很習慣以手機支付一切，連刷卡都不用了。說實話，香港在科技應用層面，比內地三線城市更落後。」

「香港餐廳指南OpenRice，內地的同類叫『大眾點評』。關鍵之處是，顧客在餐廳用膳後可以在『點評』應用程式上直接點擊付賬。時至今日，一個沒有交易的應用程式，背後其實沒有盈利可言。純顯示資訊供人瀏覽，是停留在互聯網1.0水平。」

其實香港近些年一直有電信商搶攻手機支付市場，可惜一直反應平平。幾年前3香港推出採用近場通訊技術（NFC）的手機錢包，豈料不久便宣布停止服務。對此，李英豪一針見血地指出，NFC支付在任何地方推行都註定失敗。

「『微信支付』為吸引用戶將手機綁定銀行戶口，曾大手筆燒錢，春節期間在聊天群組發放電子紅包，而搶紅包的條件是開通『微信支付』。等大家都在線上習慣了這個新事物，才推廣到線下的商舖接受手機付款，整件事自然而發。但NFC一開首就硬推線下使用，這在全世界都推不動。」

問及「錢方」打開香港市場的策略，李英豪表示會主攻小商戶。「大型的金舖、化妝品店已經支援手機支付，但旁邊的茶餐廳無法支援，也沒資格和騰訊、阿里巴巴洽談。但茶餐廳覆蓋的顧客是遠多於金舖的。所以我會先向小商戶推銷『錢方』，這在中國叫農村包圍城市。」說畢呵呵大笑。

若要進一步刺激香港本地人開通並使用手機支付，李英豪覺得還是要用燒錢的老方法。「買菠蘿包滿10元減5元，你開不開通？如果隨機減，可以滿10元減10元，甚至滿10元最高減300元，你還抵擋得住嗎？」

他認為實物貨幣的淘汰是遲早的問題。「我在北京工作的地方在新城區望京，手機支付短短一年佔了七成以上交易額。中國各省市差異很遠，但可以預言的是，十年之內電子貨幣肯定全面取代現金！」

Tim Lee’s typical day in Beijing is like this: Hail a taxi with a taxi app to go to work. With a few taps on his cell phone, get four lattes delivered from a coffee shop downstairs to the meeting room where he is having a meeting. Scan the QR code on the bill and get 20% off his ramen lunch. Meet a new colleague back in the office and ask his secretary to, again using a cell phone, have her business cards made. Back at home, with a TV remote in his right hand, buy a plane ticket to Hong Kong the next day with his left thumb.

But make no mistake: Tim Lee is no ordinary member of Generation Y, who rely on their smartphones to satisfy all their daily needs. In fact, he has been the brain and driving force behind the sea change in Chinese consumer behaviour in recent years.

Born and bred in Hong Kong, he graduated with an information engineering degree in 2006. In 2011, he went it alone and founded Qfpay in Beijing, eventually getting millions of small retailers all over China to embrace mobile payment as the new way to go.

For each business transaction, a trader uses the Qfpay mobile app to generate a QR code for the payable amount. Then the payment code on the customer’s cell phone is scanned, and bingo! Payment and receipt are completed. ‘Even as digital wallets are churned out by the tech giants, it takes two hands to clap. The payment system has to be in place at the shops too.’ So this is how Qfpay works, as explained by Lee with utmost confidence.

He said while people in both Hong Kong and the mainland are inseparable from their cell phones, they do differ when it comes to digital transactions. ‘Everyone uses their phones to watch videos, play games, listen to music, and chat. But Hong Kong comes short when it comes to digital transactions. The Gen Y in the major mainland cities are so used to paying with their cell phones that they have no use for credit cards. To be honest, as far as tech applications are concerned, Hong Kong lags behind even third-tier cities across the border.’

‘As for dining guides, in Hong Kong we have OpenRice. On the mainland, they have dianping.com. The difference is, mainland customers can use the dianping app to pay for their meals. In this day and age, there is no profit to be made if an app cannot be used for business transactions. Apps for viewing only belong in the Web 1.0 graveyard.’

Actually in recent years there has been no shortage of Hong Kong telecommunications companies trying to make a foray into the mobile payment arena. Unfortunately they have not had much success so far. Launched by 3 Hong Kong several years ago, the digital wallet using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology was soon suspended. Tim made no bones about how he saw it: NFC payment is doomed to fail wherever it is launched.

‘To encourage users to link their bank cards with their cell phones, WeChat payment splashed money to lure prospective users by launching digital hongbao (red packets) among its chat groups during the Chinese New Year. By opening a WeChat payment account, customers got the chance to win a hongbao. So instead of happening overnight, mobile payment was launched below the line at the shops only after the initiation stage online. In the case of NFC, regardless of market region, trying to go below the line right from the start just won’t work.’

When asked about his marketing plans for Hong Kong, Tim said the focus would be on small businesses. ‘The jewellery and cosmetics chains have already adopted mobile payment. The cha chan tangs nearby may have been left out of the picture, and they are in no position to cut a deal with Tencent or Alibaba. But they do outnumber the jewellery stores by a long shot. So I’ll be launching Qfpay among the small businesses. On the mainland this strategy is called “encircling the cities from the countryside”,’ he laughed heartily on that note.

However, to popularize mobile payment in Hong Kong, Tim still thinks offering huge discounts the old-fashioned way is the way to go. ‘If selling a $10 pineapple bun for $5 still won’t cut it, a random $10 or up to $300 reduction for every purchase over $10 should do it, right?’

In his opinion, it is only a matter of time before cash is made obsolete. ‘In Wangjing subdistrict, where I work in Beijing, in merely one year, mobile payments already make up over 70% of overall sales in the area. Yes, things may vary greatly across the country. But it’s foreseeable that digital money will definitely take the place of cash within 10 years!’