“Apple Pay goes live in China today,” Zheping Huang writes for Quartz. “Apple launched its mobile wallet over a year ago, but it is still not doing well in Apple’s native US. But its expansion to China, the fifth country to get Apple Pay, could be different. Chinese consumers are used to mobile payments, thanks to Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s Tenpay—the overwhelmingly dominant players of the country’s $90 billion mobile payments industry.”
MacDailyNews Take: Appel Pay is doing just fine in the U.S. It takes time to overcome 40 years of learned behavior, get the infrastructure in place, and train retail employees to even know it exists, much less what is happening when someone uses Apple Pay.
“But Apple is going to have a huge advantage,” Huang writes. “A major partner is UnionPay, an offspring of China’s central government, which holds a monopoly on bank card payments for domestic lenders. 19 Chinese banks—including China’s biggest bank, ICBC—announced in December they plan to support Apple Pay.”
“Alibaba and Tencent’s rival services have strong connections between their wallet apps with their other popular mobile apps, like shopping and messenger services. But offline, the scene is completely different,” Huang writes. “To pay in a shop via Alipay, a smartphone user needs to open a payment app, and scan a square barcode with their phone’s camera [QR codes]… Apple Pay, meanwhile, is much more convenient. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Double-clicking Apple Watch’s Side button to pay couldn’t be easier – when a retailer is ready for such magic to happen. In the U.S., it’s slowly coming along now. Support merchants who support Apple Pay.
SEE ALSO:
Apple Pay to go live in China on February 18th – February 16, 2016
Apple Pay support reaches 1,000 U.S. banks and credit unions – February 5, 2016
Apple Pay locations reach 2 million, with Chick-Fil-A to come – February 4, 2016
Apple Pay coming to ATMs from Bank Of America and Wells Fargo – January 28, 2016
Apple Pay picks up 58 new US card issuers, approaches 1,000 total banks and credit unions – January 5, 2016
Pay Finders app for finding Apple Pay locations reports 750% increase in users in two days – December 28, 2015
Why Apple’s revolutionary Apple Pay is going to be absolutely enormous – December 18, 2015
Apple Pay to take on Tencent’s WeChat Wallet and Alipay in China – December 18, 2015
Apple partners with UnionPay to launch Apple Pay in China – December 17, 2015