Online payment services' receipts soar

China's online third-party payment services turned over more than two trillion yuan ($137.5 billion) in 2011, the Internet research firm Analysys International reported on Monday.

Payments in the fourth-quarter of 2011 hit a record 738.6 billion yuan, up 30.9 percent from the previous quarter, the report said. It was the fourth successive quarter that the country's online payment trading volume saw an increase.

Increasing demand for online shopping, travel booking, gaming, and education have helped the growth of Internet-based third-party payment, according to Zhang Meng, an analyst with Analysys International.

Alipay.com Co Ltd, the payment arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, took 46 percent of the total online payments. Tencent Holdings Ltd's Tenpay, lagged more than 20 percentage points behind.

Another factor was the government's move to add new players to the market. In 2011, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) granted more than 70 new licenses to non-financial organizations engaged in payment and settlement businesses. To date, PBOC has granted more than 100 such licenses.

"The approval of new licenses has enabled third-party payment companies to dig into the more segmented market and build customer's confidence," said Zhang.