Foreigners visiting China are taking advantage of the nation's easier-to-use mobile payment services, with the number of users and transactions soaring over the past few months, a report said.

From January to June, over 5 million inbound travelers used mobile pay services, a fourfold increase year-on-year, according to the report released by the China Internet Network Information Center on Thursday.

The travelers conducted more than 90 million transactions totaling 14 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) in the first half of this year, both of which are a sevenfold increase year-on-year, the report added.

It cited the figures as proof that China's optimized mobile payments have provided greater convenience for foreign tourists, and it lauded some innovative measures taken by financial and telecom companies.

For example, under cooperation agreements between foreign financial institutions and the Nets Union Clearing Corporation, an enterprise affiliated with the People's Bank of China, foreigners in China have been able to use their overseas wallet apps to make payments in China since the beginning of this year.

As of June, more than 28 million transactions were completed in this way, more than five times higher than the same period last year, according to data released by the enterprise in July.

In addition to the e-wallet service, Nets Union has also allowed overseas travelers to link their bank cards to China's domestic payment apps, so even if foreigners in China do not have their cards with them, they can still pay for goods and services in China.

The company has served over 2 million foreign users, and the number of transactions they have made on Chinese e-commerce platforms has increased significantly, the data showed.

In March, the People's Bank of China announced that greater efforts would be made to help resolve the problems that foreign visitors, many of whom are still used to using cash and bank cards, have with making payments in China, where mobile payments have become more prevalent. The move has demonstrated the country's determination to enhance its high-level opening-up efforts.

Easier mobile payment services also benefit seniors in China. According to the report, the use rate of online payments by Chinese netizens age 60 and above had reached 75.4 percent by June.

The report showed that China had nearly 1.1 billion internet users by the end of that month, an increase of 7.42 million compared with December. Among the new netizens, the majority were age 10 to 19 or elderly people.

More than 37 percent of new internet users chose to use short video apps when they first went online during the six-month period, followed by instant messaging services, it added.

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn