E-commerce company JD.com, Inc., the second-largest online retailer in China, this past weekend said it is now the country's first digital company to accept a virtual version of China's currency.
JD Digits, the company's financial technology unit, will accept electronic yuan as payment for some of its products as part of an experimental giveaway of virtual yuan to Suzhou citizens, a post on the company's official WeChat account said.
Some 100,000 electronic cash vouchers, valued at more than 20 million yuan, will be given to people of Suzhou City in the eastern province of Jiangsu starting Dec. 11.
According to the People's Bank of China Gov. Yi Gang, around 2 billion yuan ($306 million) of the virtual currency has been used in more than 4 million as of early November.
The central bank launched a trial of the online currency in some cities in April.
China's digital currency is one of the most advanced central bank digital currency programs in the world, it says. Central banks worldwide are responding to the growing use of private currencies like bitcoin and Facebook's Libra.
Suzhou's initiative is the second after the central bank released 10 million yuan in virtual currency to 50,000 random consumers in the southern city of Shenzhen.
China consumers use mobile payments widely. Mobile wallets can manage glitches in payment systems while giving the government broader regulation on how money is used.
Setting the stage for the roll-out of the central bank digital currency, China's central bank outlined a banking policy in October, acknowledging the yuan in physical and electronic nature, and outlawing all third-party competitors. This is expected to affect digital currencies like Tether's yuan stablecoin.
