Beijing (AFP)

No need for cash, credit card, or even smartphone: Chinese consumers can now pay for their purchases by scanning their faces in a country where facial recognition is booming.

China is already very advanced in terms of mobile payment, but this new technology, currently deployed at the national level, now even kinks QR codes.

"No need to take your phone with you - you can go out shopping without taking anything," says Bo Hu, director of computer services at the Chinese bakery chain Wedome.

This popular brand, which offers Western breads and pastries adapted to the taste of the Chinese, already uses facial recognition terminals in a hundred outlets.

"Paying nothing, it was not possible at the beginning of mobile payments (made with QR codes) .But it is possible today thanks to the rise of facial recognition," he says.

The latter is already widely used in China: to order at KFC, to identify fugitives in the crowd, people who cross outside pedestrian crossings, or to unlock access to his workplace.

- 'Smile-to-pay' -

It is also applied on a very large scale for the maintenance of order in the Xinjiang region (northwest), where the population, mostly Muslim, is under intense police surveillance after a series of attacks.

To pay, consumers must first link a photo of their face to their bank account or mobile payment system.

Once in the store, they then only have their head scanned by the terminal provided for this purpose.

The Chinese mobile payment giant, Alipay, leads the dance in China, with machines installed in 100 cities across the country.

The company sees a huge potential for growth and plans to invest some 3 billion yuan (380 million euros) over three years to improve its technology called "Smile-to-Pay" ("Smile-to-Pay") .

Its competitor Tencent, which manages the WeChat messaging application, to 600 million users, unveiled in August a new payment terminal named "Frog Pro".

Start-ups are also trying to invest in this booming sector.

"The facial recognition payment certainly has the potential to become widespread thanks to the impetus of the major mobile payment players," said Mengmeng Zhang, an analyst at Counterpoint's Hong Kong law firm.

"Alipay is spending billions to spread this technology, through vendor subsidies and financial rewards for consumers who use it."

- Camera boxes -

In Tianjin, a big city 120km south-east of Beijing, the IFuree supermarket, which operates without cashiers, also offers this technology to its customers.

A 3D camera scans the faces of people entering the store. At the moment of paying, they scan their articles themselves at the checkout and then present their faces to the camera again. Their bank account is immediately charged.

"It's convenient because you can buy things very quickly," enthused Zhang Liming, a retiree.

"In traditional supermarkets, you have to wait in line, which is not very pleasant," she says.

At Wedome, some 300 stores now have facial recognition terminals, says Bo Hu. They will soon be followed by 400 others.

New payment technology is also a way for businesses to collect more data.

"This retail trend is motivated by two things: preventing shoplifting and getting information about consumer preferences," notes Jeffrey Ding, a researcher at Oxford University.

This new form of payment is also part of a wider national campaign to make China a world leader in high technology.

- 'A big risk' -

"It is in line with government ambitions to make facial recognition one of the pillars of the artificial intelligence sector," said Adam Segal, an analyst at the US Council on Foreign Relations.

But what if this information is diverted from their primary purpose of payment? Many are concerned about the risks inherent in this potentially intrusive technology.

"There is a great risk that the state will use this data for its own monitoring, control, or dissident monitoring needs," said Adam Ni, China researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney. .

For proponents of this technology on the contrary, there would be no concern to have.

"Facial recognition helps to maintain confidentiality," said Li Dongliang, an IFuree engineer.

"It is dangerous to dial your credit card code when someone is behind you, paying with your face helps protect your account."

But some consumers have other concerns. According to a survey of the Sina news site, 60% of respondents think their face "ugly" when it appears on the screen of the payment terminal.

In response, Alipay has already announced a news that should reassure them: its cameras will now be equipped with ... "beautification filters".

© 2019 AFP