Don't you have free SEPA bank transfers across EU? Where you can just scan QR code with your phone, press a button and money got sent instantly? Pretty much the same as AliPay?
Not that I am aware of. SEPA transfers are neither free nor simple. Maybe others can chime in on this.
In China I use
WechatPay. Wechat is the equivalent of Whatsapp and is what I use for chatting, sending photos, etc. and also for paying in China. Everybody has it. And I mean *everybody*.
Let me describe how it is in China. After lunch my wife decides we should go to a department store and get me a coat. We go out and rent two bikes by scanning the QR code on them. The (tiny) payment is automatically processed by Wechat without any cost to us or further need to do anything. At the department store/mall we release (lock) the bikes and go inside. Once we decide the purchase we go to the register where there are visible logos of payment forms they accept and we are asked how we would like to pay. We say Wechat and the register prints out a ticket with a QR code which I scan and pay. The register instantly receives confirmation of the payment. No cost or commission for the payment. I suppose the merchants pay it.
We cross the street to a big park where a food vendor with a cart has a QR code visible. We ask for some cold soy beverage, we scan the QR code, input the (small) amount manually and click "send". The vendor could, of course, check her own account to confirm but just looks at our phone to confirm and is satisfied.
A barber is working on the sidewalk and I decide to get a haircut. For some reason he thinks I am Russian. I guess in years past pretty much all foreigners there were Russians. Same thing: scan QR code, input amount, hit send and show the barber.
Uh, oh, we are having dinner with the wife's family at a restaurant and time is short. We call a
DD car (like Uber) and also pay using Wechat.
At the (more upscale) restaurant we get a printed bill which we scan and pay, like at the department store. In lower-end places you just scan their Wechat ID and input the amount manually.
My wife's family insist on sharing the bill and transfer (something) to her Wechat account which they don't need to scan because they already have it.
So the system is extremely simple and convenient, costs nothing and is good for all payments, big or small.
Nothing in Spain comes even close to this. Bank transfers are a pain and cost money. Credit cards are a pain in several ways. And there is no convenient way to just pay small amounts to a friend or a small vendor.
I guess a regular credit card offers things that Paypal or Wechat don't like credit, security of transactions (you cannot charge back on Wechat that I know of) but the convenience is unequalled.
This is just one aspect where IMHO China is way ahead of us. I think many people never got used to banking. They went directly from using only cash to using smartphones. I would think most people in China have never used a check in their lives.
https://transferwise.com/help/article/1663579/euro-transfers/what-are-sepa-transfers
Per EU regulations, transfers between bank accounts in two different SEPA countries shouldn’t cost any more than a regular, local transfer. Some banks, mostly Italian or Spanish, will still find ways to charge you extra.