After a number of reports in recent months regarding Apple’s preparations to launch its Apple Pay payments service in China, the company today announced the service is now available to customers in the country.
The announcement comes via Apple’s news site for developers and notes that apps and goods in the country can now accept the Apple Pay payments service using supported credit and debit cards.
Apple first announced back in December of last year that it was partnering with China UnionPay to bring Apple Pay to users in China sometime in 2016. Today it announced they can now begin using the service to pay for goods and services within apps using both China UnionPay credit and debit cards:
You can now support Apple Pay for your customers in China, providing an easy, secure, and private way for them to pay using their China UnionPay credit and debit cards. Apple Pay lets users buy physical goods and services within your app without having to enter payment or contact information.
CEO Tim Cook has been vocal about growth in China including plans for Apple Pay, recently noting that he “very much” wanted to launch the platform there and that he is “very bullish” on its prospects in the country.
Yesterday we noted that the China launch was rumored for this week as Apple also reportedly eyes a launch for France this year. Today’s launch adds China to the list of supported Apple Pay countries alongside the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Earlier today Apple added another 40 banks and credit unions to its list of officially supported institutions for Apple Pay in the US.
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Could one now use an American card in China? Or is it that only Chinese cards are able to be used in China.
One has been able to use a US card in China since the launch of Apple Pay. It is dependent on whether or not the merchant accepts NFC payments and whether the bank you use support Apple Pay, not actual geography.
The swift easy way to rollout Apple Pay make a deal with the credit card network. Should be done this way in all countries. Instead Apple took the greed approach in the US doing bank by bank deals, because the banks get such a high percent of the transaction fee per swipe.
I’m curious what the percentage Apple is getting with UnionPay and also curious
In China the card issuer also need to be one of participating banks as listed on the website in order for the card to be added to Apple Pay (http://www.apple.com/cn/apple-pay/). Apple also reached partnership with MasterCard and Visa in order to support Apple Pay in the US, so it’s essentially the same.
80% of China card holders already can use Apple Pay. Apple Pay launched in the US with Chase,Bank of America,Citi, and Capital One and has slowly been adding banks for the last 18 months.
VISA designed the token system Apple Pay uses they dont’t have a split of the transaction fees Apple is negotiating those with the banks.
So no it is not the same.
Listing Canada makes it sound more impressive than it is. Only Amex is supported here and who uses that?
Only got Amex because it serves both as a bank and credit network.
Why does it take them ages to get it to Europe!!….. (except UK) Stop screwing me over with a phone i can’t use all the functions of!!
Because, the euro zone has a cap on the transaction fees merchants pay. It is .2% on debit and .3% on credit cards. In 2011 European merchants paid €1.9 trillion in swipe fees hence the cap passed in 2015.
These leaves little room for the credit networks or the banks to give Apple the high cut of the fees they want. It’s rumored Apple gets .15% per transaction here in the US.
The simple answer is greed. Apple could easi,y strike a low percent deal with Maestro, Visa and other credit networks and swiftly roll Apple Pay out any any country in Europe
Common. Get to the Netherlands soon or Apple will miss the boat! Paying contactless is already getting the norm here.