(Yicai Global) Aug. 23 -- China has become the world leader for mobile payments and its technology companies will play a key role in the future of the future financial ecosystem, said Xinhua citing a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Users of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s [NYSE:BABA] third party payment service, Alipay, now number 450 million globally, dwarfing Apple Inc.'s [NYSE:AAPL] Apple Pay's 12 million users.

"The cost of switching payment methods is the key factor. The lower ownership rate of credit cards among Chinese consumers has allowed mobile payments to become mainstream, while Western consumers are less enthusiastic about changing payments from using credit cards to scanning QR codes," said Jesse McWaters, the report's author and leader of innovation in financial services at the World Economic Forum.

The report aims to explore the impact of innovation on global financial ecosystems. It emphasizes that there are three key competencies for future financial institutions to compete for differential advantages: cloud computing, customer-oriented artificial intelligence and customer analysis with big data. In these areas, technology giants have a broader space for development, compared with traditional financial services.

The report predicts that in the future new financial ecosystem, large technology companies will gradually replace some financial institutions, while banks and insurance firms will become more reliant on large technology enterprises.