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Report: Apple to launch Apple Pay in China by February of 2016

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Back in September, Apple created a company in the Shanghai free-trade zone, hinting at its plans to launch its mobile payment solution Apple Pay in the country. Now, Dow Jones & WSJ report that Apple plans to launch Apple Pay in China by February. Apple has reportedly secured agreements with the four largest banks in China to support the platform.

The potential for Apple Pay in China is huge. China is already a bigger market than Europe for Apple and will soon overtake the United States in size. Currently, mobile payment is dominated by Alipay in China, the service created by Alibaba. Apple hopes to launch Apple Pay by China’s Spring Festival Holiday on February 8th.

In the past, it has been reported that Apple has been in talks with Alibaba regarding a potential partnership to help facilitate a faster rollout in the country. At this point, Apple does not appear to have regulatory approval to launch in China, but Tim Cook has commented that he “very much” wants to launch the platform in the country and is “very bullish” on its prospects there.

Most recently, Apple Pay has expanded to the U.K., Canada, and Australia following its initial launch in the United States.

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Comments

  1. Paul Andrew Dixon - 8 years ago

    I wish Japan would hurry up and get the darn thing…

    The problem with Japan is that they have been using an older mobile payment system for years – of which most either work with an IC card that you had funds to, or an e-wallet on the phone…most dont work with credit cards…

    The problem with japan is change takes time – so they may have this in time for 2020 olympics

    • lonelybob - 8 years ago

      True, but recently Apple Pay has added point cards, so there is potential for getting suica or other digital payment systems added to Apple Pay, & if so would be great to use on the train, convenience stores, and certain vending machines. I’m sure there’d be a long testing period though, considering the legacy systems and conservative companies involved.

  2. Slovakia is ready, come on :D NFC terminals are widely used here.

  3. elme26bih - 8 years ago

    Germany is waiting!

  4. The Netherlands is waiting as well! We use a darn lot of those NFC terminals around. In fact, I currently carry a contactless payment card. Has been working fine, but it feels quite unsafe since you don’t have to enter your pincode. So Apple Pay can’t come soon enough. :P

  5. DamoTheBrave - 8 years ago

    Sorry but Australia only has A Pay with American Express. That really doesn’t count in my view.

  6. varera (@real_varera) - 8 years ago

    If you think AU is bad towards Apple pay, take a look at Switzerland. Each bank is pushing it own cardless solution, all of them are ridiculous. Apple pay is not even on the horizon.

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com