Apple Pay launched in China

After a number of reports regarding the supposed launch date of Apple Pay in China, the mobile payment service provided by the US tech giant with China UnionPay has officially become available in the country at 5 am on Thursday.

China has become the fifth country in which Apple has deployed its payment system, after the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Instead of scanning a bar code, which is required by existing mobile payment services provided by Alipay and WeChat, Apple Pay users will utilize what is called near-field communication technology, or NFC, to allow contactless data exchange between iPhone, Apple Watch and point of sale terminals.

The transaction will be completed when users hold their devices near a POS portal with UnionPay’s built-in QuickPass feature.

Some of the retail merchants and fast-food restaurants have enabled the payment service, including Burger King, Pacific Coffee, Lane Crawford, Seven Eleven, KFC Beijing and Carrefour.

Meanwhile, domestic group-buying sites, such as Meituan, Dianping and taxi-hailing apps, including Yidao Taxi, CAR Inc are also available for in-app purchases enabled by Apple Pay.