BEIJING -- Smartphone payment services that use QR code technology became more prevalent in China last year, according to a report released by WeChat, China's popular social media platform.

Over 50 million individual businesses were active users of WeChat Pay, one of the country's two major third-party payment platforms, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the country's total.

The number of retail transactions using WeChat Pay surged 62 percent year on year.

Taking orders through QR codes has become trendy at restaurants, with 53 percent of diners chose to pay bills through WeChat Pay.

The report also showed that an increasing number of consumers used WeChat to hail taxis, buy scenic spot tickets, and book hotels.

WeChat saw more than 1.15 billion monthly active accounts in 2019, increasing by 6 percent from the same period in 2018, the report said.