Chinese retail giant JD accepts digital yuan payments for Singles Day

E-commerce giant JD.com took payments in China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) at a massive local ​​shopping event.

JD.com accepted digital yuan (e-CNY) for payment on its e-commerce application for the Singles Day promotion period which began on Oct. 31 and ended on Nov. 11, the firm confirmed on Thursday.

Singles Day is an unofficial shopping holiday in the country that also celebrates people who aren't in a romantic relationship. 

“100,000 people had used e-CNY on JD.com’s app during the Singles Day promotion period as of today,” a spokesperson for JD.com 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 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. As many as 450,000 customers used e-CNY for payment on the JD.com app from Dec. 11 last year to June 18, 2021, with total sales in e-CNY netting over 100 million yuan ($15.6 million), the spokesperson stated.

Founded in 1998, JD.com is a major e-commerce company in China, positioning itself as China’s largest online retailer, in addition to being China’s “biggest internet company by revenue.” The company has been actively adopting China’s CBDC, debuting the digital yuan for salary payments in April 2021.

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After rolling out 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, over 140 million people have registered digital yuan accounts, with nearly $10 billion spent in e-CNY despite the CBDC not being launched officially so far.