Apple Pay expands into China
(18 February 2016 – China) Technology giant, Apple, has launched its mobile payment platform, Apple Pay in China.
The company has an agreement with China UnionPay, which holds a monopoly on bank-card payments, as well as with 19 Chinese banks.
Apple Pay allows users to pay for their purchases with Apple’s deviceswhich they can tap against scanners advertising Apple Pay or UnionPay’s QuickPass, a chip-based contactless payment service.
Apple will be entering an evolved electronic payments market. Currently, around 360 million Chinese us mobile devices to make online payments, according to official data from China Internet Network Information Center.
"We think China could be our largest Apple Pay market," Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay, was quoted as saying.
However, the technology firm faces stiff competition. Online giants, Tencent and Alibaba have established products in the market. Tencent owns WeChat Payment, part of its popular instant messaging system, and e-commerce company Alibaba runs Alipay via its internet finance affiliate Ant Financial.
Alipay has over 400 million active users, with 80 percent on mobile, according to a spokesperson. "Alipay is an app for both (Google software) Android and (Apple's) iOS system and has little requirements for the make and model of the mobile phone," she said.
The launch follows Apple’s entry into Western markets in the last two years including the US (2014), the UK, Australia and Canada.
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