The number of China's mobile payment users has exceeded 520 million, according to Ant Financial, Alibaba's financial affiliate.

According to the People's Bank of China, Chinese banks dealt with 8.6 billion payments from mobile services in the second quarter of this year, up 40.5 percent from a year ago.

The combined value of mobile payments jumped 33.8 percent to 39.2 trillion yuan (6 trillion U.S. dollars).

The growth came as user-friendly platforms such as WeChat Pay encourage online transactions.

In April, Ant Financial said it planned to spend 6 billion yuan (910 million U.S. dollars) in two years to popularize its payment system.

According to a report jointly produced by Tencent, Renmin University of China and French market researchers Ipsos, 84 percent of Chinese said they are "comfortable" going out with only their phones and no cash.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn