Recently, the country's largest mobile accounting and financial management app "Wacai" provided a comparison of December 2013 expenditures between users in Beijing and Shanghai: residents in both cities enjoy traveling, but Shanghai residents have the highest travel spending in the country.
Reporters observed that among the eight default expenditure categories in the Wacai app — housing, shopping, investment, dining, socializing, transportation, entertainment, and medical/education — Beijingers had higher total expenditures in most categories compared to Shanghainese. However, outside these eight categories, the self-listed expenditure categories of users in the two cities were distinctly different: Beijingers most frequently listed mortgage, travel, and home renovation as their top three expense categories, while Shanghainese most frequently listed travel, home renovation, and weddings.
Data shows that in December 2013, the "travel expenditure" total of Shanghai's "financial masters" (the nickname for Wacai users) accounted for the highest proportion among self-listed expenditure categories, reaching 43.23%, with an average single transaction amount of 2,188 yuan. In the same period, the average single travel expenditure of Beijing users was 883 yuan, meaning Shanghai residents spent three times more on travel than those in Beijing.
It is understood that the Wacai app currently has over 50 million domestic users, including 3.76 million in Beijing, which is fewer than the 3.85 million users in Shanghai.