Chinese banks are working with Apple Pay to regain lost ground from Alibaba and Tencent, as Chinese consumers are moving to mobile payment quickly.
Advertisement
They company is hoping that Apple Pay will lead to a solid new revenue stream and so it has officially expanded the mobile payment system to China.
But despite the high profile of the iPhone brand in China, even Apple will find it hard to eat away at Alibaba and Tencent – local Chinese applications have repeatedly confounded efforts by global brands to take over the market, especially when it comes to shopping and paying. During its launch, Jennifer Bailley, Vice President, Apple Pay said, “China has the potential of becoming Apple Pay’s largest market”. Mashable noted in their report that “by 5 p.m. yesterday, 38 million bank cards had been linked to Apple Pay”.
Apple has 19 of China’s biggest lenders as partners.
“This is a good way for the government to save the national banks”, said Chen Lin, assistant professor of marketing at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. However, Apple Pay has not had an easy ride so far in China, the fifth country to get the service.
An Apple spokesperson has claimed that the issues that people were facing while trying to register for Apple Pay were due to a massive influx of users.
Apple will have to expand to more countries so that the service can achieve a stronger presence.
Chinese authorities are said to be watching how Apple fares in its fight against the US government. Our technologies, partnerships and employee expertise enable us to provide a broad range of products and services that allow our customers to accept all payment types across a variety of distribution channels in many markets around the world. In the U.S., these are said to be 15 cents per $100 transaction.
Advertisement
Luo Yi, an analyst at Huatai Securities, wrote in a client note: “For UnionPay, its dominance in offline payment markets is gradually losing its appeal, therefore a tie-up with Apple Pay can help it upgrade its technology and fight back”.
