American tech giant Apple has introduced its online payment technology called Apple Pay in mainland China. This mobile payment system was made available on February 18 with the support of several Chinese banks.
Apple has been aggressive in introducing this mode of payment through their Apple devices. This makes China the fifth country who will be able to enjoy this service.
According to Apple's Chinese website, it has officially partnered with 19 Chinese lenders to accommodate different payment modes as per Reuters, Certain companies like China Guangfa Bank Co Ltd and China Construction Bank Corp has also confirmed that they will go live with Apple pay system.
Statistics show that China is the second largest market of Apple products, but it faces challenges to match the prowess of the mobile payment system. BBC noted that IDC analyst Bryan Ma predicted Apple to have a smaller share of the market, which is still dominated by AliPay and Tencent's WeChat Payment.
Although many are skeptical about Apple Pay, the company is confident that this payment scheme will work out considering the fact that Chinese people are used to paying their bills and other commodities and services using their mobile phones.
Dubbed as the biggest smartphone market in the world, experts see China to have 358 million mobile payment system users by the end of 2015. According to Quartz, two of the largest companies that dominates these type of payment schemes are Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) and e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd through its Internet finance affiliate Ant Financial Services Group. Now, Apple wants to get a hold of their market share.
Aside from China, Apple has also been struggling to enter the online payment business scheme in Australia as dominant banks seem reluctant in letting Apple enter the scene. Situation in Britain is also worst as big banks require Apple to pay fees before relenting.
