Payments Ecosystem

The day is here now for Apple Pay launch in China. Likely it will gain better results than Australia and Canada launches where the usage is limited in sole partnership with Amex. China rollout includes support from 15 banks and will compete with Tencent and Alibaba QR based solutions at POS and through chat services.

CUP QuickPass to start accepting Apple Pay around Feb 2016. The news comes soon after CUP announced working with local banks on NFC HCE solution for its QuickPass merchants!

CUP to launch mobile HCE tokenized payment solution in collaboration with 20 local banks!

Following Alibaba and Tencent launches for online banking, Baidu ventures into space with China Citic post its Baidu wallet release.  

In last quarterly report, China represented 17% and US with 38% of Global Sales. Why are these numbers important - cause they are the only two markets for Apple with more than 10% of Global Sales.

China is a greater strategic market for Apple than other developed markets. Some keynote highlights:

• Tencent's WeChat was shown on the demo during the keynote. WeChat is the biggest messenger service in China with over 650 million active users. These users leverage the TenPay for purchasing goods and services using WeChat including Uber like taxi-hailing; an area where Touchid / Apple Pay integration will assist in providing greater security in future for Tenpay
• 6 New store openings were planned before Chinese New Year. Key note reflected a picture of the new store, with another with some media mentioning between 35 to 40 by mid-2016
• Apple Watch will include China in first wave(Apple Watch becomes available on April 24,  with Pre-orders  in the U.S., the U.K., China, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Hong Kong), an important move that plugs with current 20+ retail outlets that will showroom including premium versions of watch. Previous iPhone and other Apple releases in China have been part of Wave2 countries.
• Xiaomi the leading smartphone provider in China is being challenged with Apple products as China continues to play a dominant part in Apple revenue position globally. Apple TV with its lower price might be another play for Apple to venture to Chinese consumers with right content providers / offerings. 
• Apple laptops, wearables, and phones with their sleek design and user interface are becoming an attractive part of Chinese consumers and friendly payment plans will make these goods within easier reach of desirable products for China. 
• India will be the next market Apple will unleash its strategy to tap into the big smartphone consumers. Some inroad have been made with franchised retail stores and finance offerings, yet a bigger trigger is to evolve for greater acceptance in India market. 

Author: Vineet Anand; Date: March 10, 2015