Apple Inc partners with UnionPay to launch payment service in China

This partnership with UnionPay Network Payment will allow PowaTag to take a leading position in the mobile commerce and O2O market in China.

If a partnership does happen, it would give Apple Pay a significant boost in China because Alipay has about 350 million users, but there have been no announcements since Cook and Ma supposedly met a year ago.

Apple Pay, the tech giant’s electronic-payments service, has finally secured a place in the world’s biggest smartphone market.

In China, Apple Pay is set to work with QuickPass, the mobile phone service solution supporting contactless payments that was launched by UnionPay just a few days ago. “China UnionPay is dedicated to promoting payment innovations and providing secure, convenient mobile payment experiences for its hundreds of millions of cardholders, aligning multiple parties in the industry”, said Chai Hongfeng, executive vice president of China UnionPay.

“Apple Pay has revolutionized the way millions of people pay every day with their iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad”, said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice-president of Internet Software and Services”. According to a press release from Apple, customers will be able to add their cards to Apple Pay sometime next year.

Launched a year ago in the U.S. and then in other countries, Apple Pay enables owners of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6S or Apple Watch to pay for items on the go via the wireless technology NFC (near-field communication). They said they had agreements with 15 Chinese banks to support the service.

The Shanghai-based UnionPay operates a network for issuing and processing credit card and debit transactions, opening the door for consumers to use Apple Pay on their iPhones, Apple Watches and iPads. UnionPay cards can be used in more than 26 million merchants and 1.9 million ATMs.