“China’s iPhone users will have to wait some more to use the Apple Pay payment system because the latest update to the popular smartphone’s operating system does not support bank cards from UnionPay, the only company that handles interbank payments in the country,” Caixin reports. “A UnionPay employee who declined to be named said the company has not reached any agreements with the U.S. tech company, and no timetable for cooperation has been set.”
“Apple Inc. released its latest operating system — iOS 8.3 — on April 9, but it does not support China UnionPay,” Caixin reports. “When Apple sent software developers a test version of the new operating system in February, it said iOS 8.3 would support UnionPay, a development that received broad media attention.”
“In the United States, Apple Pay says it gets 0.15% of the 2% fee paid by merchants for each credit-card payment and half a penny for each debit card payment,” Caixin reports. “But Chinese banks argued those charges were too steep, an employee of a large bank said. Many large banks that are already part of mature point-of-sale networks do not want to lose such a large percentage of their profits in a deal with Apple Pay, he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ugh.
Related articles:
Apple Pay’s China rollout reportedly stalled – February 17, 2015
Apple Adds UnionPay payment option for App Store Customers in China – November 16, 2014
Apple Pay rumored to launch in China in April – March 23, 2015
Policy change in China helps potential Alipay, Apple Pay hook up – October 31, 2014
I guess they’re not as concerned about fraud in China, and aren’t willing to pay for a system that would reduce it.
“UnionPay, the only company that handles interbank payments in the country”.
This could take a while. A long while. Don’t hold your breath folks.
Yeah. I know China’s important. But, for the love of all that’s holy, let’s get Canada on board, eh?
Just what is holding up Canada, Apple or the Canadian banks?
First iBooks was held up, then iRadio, now Apple Pay. Getting sick and tired of this.
Just what is holding up Canada, Apple or the Canadian banks?
First iBooks was held up, then iRadio, now Apple Pay. Getting sick and tired of this.
BTW, if the Banks are giving trouble, then Apple should threaten them with “Apple Bank”. Pretty much everyone will rather bank with Apple than any of the existing banks. That would definitely get the job done.
The. Way the sentence was written, Apple supposedly gets a minuscule par of already small fee the banks get from every transaction.
For example, if the transaction is $1,000, bank would get $20 (2%). Apple’s share of those $20 would barely be 3 cents (0.15% of $20) — not even a dollar, for a $1,000 transaction.
My guess is that the author wanted to say that the Apple’s share is 0.15% of the whole transaction, and it is coming out of bank’s share, which is 2%.