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Apple officially launches Apple Pay in China

Apple-Pay-China

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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Comments

  1. pokecaptain - 8 years ago

    Could one now use an American card in China? Or is it that only Chinese cards are able to be used in China.

    • lombax54a - 8 years ago

      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.

  2. taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

    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

    • xxanderxu - 8 years ago

      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.

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        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.

  3. Graham J - 8 years ago

    Listing Canada makes it sound more impressive than it is. Only Amex is supported here and who uses that?

  4. Peter van Schepen - 8 years ago

    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!!

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      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

  5. Bernd Keuning - 8 years ago

    Common. Get to the Netherlands soon or Apple will miss the boat! Paying contactless is already getting the norm here.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.