Apple Pay is coming to China by February of 2016, according to Wall Street Journal reports. The tech giant is said to be working on getting Apple Pay up-and-running in China by February of the upcoming year, which would put the electronic payment service in the hands of Chinese citizens by the end of winter.
Apple is said to have come to terms with state-run banks, which was a major challenge for Apple Pay in the first place. However, this does not mean that the hurdles are over. The Apple Pay system, as well as Apple as a company, will be forced to clear some regulatory hurdles that could prove challenging, or even impossible. It is simply too soon to say for absolute certain.
The optimal date of launch would be February 8th, which is a major Chinese Festival Holiday. It is unclear how much Apple will actually get for the individual transactions. However, in the U.S. they get 0.15% per credit transaction, and $0.05 per debit transaction. This major sticking point, according to those involved with the makeshift negotiations have said that this might be an area where a middle ground was reached.
This is a major piece of the conversation, though, as Apple has seen a significant increase in the overall performance of iPhone in China. Sales from this last quarter revealed that they were up 87% from the previous quarter – and that was with just the iPhone 6 and 6S involved in the conversation.
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The biggest hurdle is working with, or against, UnionPay, which dominates all payment methods in China. It is state-run, which like most things in China, means that its connectivity to the government gives it a stiff advantage over the competition. To that end, “One Chinese developer who has seen the latest beta version of Apple’s mobile operating system said logos for China’s UnionPay can be found within the package. China UnionPay Co. press officials did not respond to requests for comment.”
The expansion throughout the world is something that Apple has wanted to do for years now, especially on this particular front. Apple Pay is the future – and it would appear as though they are poised to really make a change and make a significant difference in the global market if they are able to capture China as a workable market.
