Apple has reportedly set up a new company called Apple Technology Services (Shanghai) to bring Apple Pay to China. Apparently Cupertino has already registered an entity within the Shanghai free-trade zone that will be charged with coordinating Apple Pay.
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According to a news break by Dow Jones, there are strong predictions that the mobile payment service is going to grow big in Asia with the entry of Telecom bigwig Apple Pay.
Apple did not respond to Xinhua’s requests for comment.
Apple will launch an online payment service in China, media said, as the tech giant seeks to expand in its largest market outside of the U.S. despite fierce competition from local rivals. But, while getting support in the United Kingdom and Canada hasn’t really proven to be such a major challenge, China has remained tightly sealed off to the payment service, at least up until now that is. An alternative payment solution, offered by domestic internet firms Alibaba and Tencent, which lets users scan QR code to complete transactions, is far more popular. Companies that want to launch online payment services in China first have to gain approvals from Chinese regulators such as the central bank.
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A new report suggests that Apple might have finally managed to permeate the vast Chinese market and is now closer to releasing Apple Pay there than ever. Earlier this year, we told you that Apple was negotiating with China UnionPay, the lone bank in China that deals with interbank payments.
