Apple announced a partnership with China’s UnionPay to roll out Apple Pay in China.
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Well, as it turns out, Apple Pay is set to be officially launched in China on February 18 instead.
Apple said in December it will launch the wireless payment business in China, its biggest overseas market, partnering with China UnionPay, the No 1 bankcard association in the country.
Apple Pay will be initially supported by 15 Chinese banks including the 4 largest institutions: Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank.
This information comes from the official public WeChat account of China Guangfa Bank credit cards.
Apple Pay was launched in October 2014 in the U.S. It has since entered the U.K., Canada, and Australia.
Given that Apple Pay has not taken off elsewhere quite as rapidly as some predicted it would, it will be interesting to see how it fares in China – which Cook has been outspoken about believing will soon represent Apple’s biggest market worldwide.
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Meanwhile, French website iGeneration claims that Apple is preparing to launch Apple Pay in France and could make an announcement in the first half of 2016 – perhaps at WWDC in June. As for Canada, Apple-focused blog iPhone in Canada recently found code that mentions a Canadian bank. The same string was also shared on Chinese website Feng last month, in the screenshot pictured right, according to the report.
