Apple has announced to expand of its service to China. On its developer site, the US technology giant said that the mobile payment service would be available in the country starting on Thursday.
The company first announced its plans to bring Apple Pay to the country last year in December, when it revealed a partnership with debit and credit card provider China UnionPay. So far Apple Pay is available in five countries – after the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, China is the fifth country to get the service.
We think China could be our largest Apple Pay market. – Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay, in an interview with Reuters.
For Apple, China will be the most competitive market as the tech giant has to compete with AliPay by Alibaba, which has over 400 million registered users in the country. The largest messaging platform in China, WeChat also offers payment service through WePay – widely used for offline and online purchases in the country.
China has one of the largest markets, with hundreds of millions of users – who can use Apple Payment service using their China UnionPay credit and debit cards. Apple lets its users buy physical goods and services within their app in an easy, secure, and private way without having to enter payment or contact information.
