Residents who received "red packets" of digital yuan use the money in stores in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. Photo: Li Hao/GT

The beta version of digital yuan app has sparked widespread interest among the Chinese public since a trial app appeared in app stores. A large number of downloads for the app were recorded across different operating systems. 

As of Sunday, the download volume of digital yuan app in the Huawei app store has surpassed  580,000 from "less than 10,000" since its debut,  reported the Securities Daily on Monday. The app also ranked No. 2 in free app ranking list for Apple's App Store in the Chinese mainland on Monday, which had once topped the list last week. 

The digital yuan is expanding to include multiple platforms. According to the data from food delivery platform Meituan, by January 7, the daily increase rate of digital yuan users hit 25 percent, a 10 times daily increase was reported by e-commerce platform JD since it was launched. Chinese tech giant Tencent also vowed to officially provide digital yuan services, according to the report. 

The beta version of the digital yuan wallet app went live on Apple's App Store and Android app stores on Tuesday, ready for the broad use by domestic and international customers during the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Users of digital yuan now can open different accounts by using nine service providers, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Ant Group backed MyBank and Tencent backed WeBank, the app showed. 

Global Times