Android Pay is coming to China, UnionPay courts smartphone makers
Android could soon be a strong player in the mobile payments market and provide Apple Inc. with some competition. The largest issuer of debit and credit cards in China, China UnionPay has been promoting Android Pay, according to Shanghai’s China Business News reports. The service will be available for Android-based smartphone makers and is rumored to launch in the third quarter of 2015.
The service will be similar to Apple Pay, using fingerprint recognition plus Near Field Communication (NFC) to secure and enable mobile payments.
The plan for Android Pay is that UnionPay will subsidize smartphone makers for the additional cost of the NFC chip used in the phone, thereby paving the way for Android Pay to be adopted by more manufacturers. Smartphone makers, including Lenovo and Coolpad, have been approached by UnionPay according to the report by Want China Times.
Based on the value of processed transactions, UnionPay comes in second, after Visa, as the biggest payment network in the world. They also have an extensive list of partners, which could see Android Pay launching with more partners than Apple Pay did.
Apple announced on November 17, their acceptance of UnionPay cards for payment at Apple’s App Store in China. This announcement came as the first indication that Apple and UnionPay could team up to introduce Apple Pay to China in early 2015.
Both Android Pay and Apple Pay are likely to see stiff competition from Alipay in China. Alipay has a dominant position and currently holds 80% market share in China’s mobile payments market.
photo credit: asgw via photopin cc
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