UnionPay signs up for Apple Pay
Print Edition
SHANGHAI-BASED China UnionPay Co has announced a partnership with Apple Inc to bring Apple Pay, the US technology giant’s electronic-payments service, to China by early next year.
The partnership will allow China UnionPay cardholders to add their bank cards to Apple Pay on iPhones, Apple watches and iPads, and complete payment by tapping their devices to pay at point-of-sale machines with fingerprint certification.
The mobile payment system is still undergoing regulatory tests by Chinese authorities to verify that it is in compliance with the applicable national mobile payment and financial industry standards in China, Apple said in a statement.
The service will be able to be used at more than 26 million merchants and 1.9 million ATMs worldwide, according to UnionPay.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said in a statement: “We’re thrilled to be working with 15 of the leading banks in China who have signed on to support Apple Pay.”
Also yesterday, UnionPay joined up with South Korea’s Samsung Electric Co on a similar payment service — Samsung Pay — allowing Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 users to pay by devices sometime next year.
Apple and Samsung’s mobile-payment systems may help UnionPay and Chinese banks fend off competition from third-party payment services that include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings Ltd’s Tenpay.
Alibaba’s Alipay affiliate controlled 83 percent of China’s third-party mobile payment market in 2014, while Tencent’s Tenpay held 10 percent, according to market-research firm iResearch.
Alipay allows its more than 400 million registered users to make purchases from computers, tablets and smartphones at more than 130,000 bricks-and-mortar stores, according to its website.
Mobile-payment transactions jumped 134 percent to 22.6 trillion yuan (US$3.5 trillion) in China last year, according to central bank figures.
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