An employee uses an Apple iPhone to demonstrate to reporters how to pay using the Apple Pay service at an Apple store in Beijing, Feb 17, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Foreign bees seek Chinese honey 

As for-hire bikes flood city streets and cashless diners pay for meals by phone, the digital economy just keeps expanding, and foreign firms have noticed.

Apple is desperate for a bigger slice of the mobile payment market dominated by WeChat and Alipay. In July, Apple Pay launched its biggest marketing campaign since entering China, offering perks including up to 50 percent discounts on purchases for a week.

Total online retail sales reached 3.1 trillion yuan in H1, a third more than a year before and, while Chinese firms Alibaba and JD.com dominate, US rival Amazon is making inroads.

In June, Amazon partnered with Migu, a China Mobile subsidiary with one of the country's largest mobile reading platforms, to create a new Kindle exclusively for Chinese readers.

On Black Friday last year, sales at Amazon China were double the previous year's. The number of cross-border shoppers using the site has risen 22-fold in just two years.