Apple Pay is expanding to China; shows-up in Apple Maps in Canada

Apple Pay will invade China before the Chinese New Year on Feb. 8 after reaching deals with the country’s Big Four banks. On the other hand, the Apple logo has showed up on Apple Pay icons in Canada where the electronic payment service was launched last week.

It’s a well known “secret” Apple CEO Tim Cook "very much wants to get Apple Pay in China”, according to MacRunours. Cook has also said he’s "very bullish on Apple Pay in China” and has established a company in China to grow the service. This company, Apple Technology Service (Shanghai) Ltd., is located in Shanghai.

Apple, however, will run into severe competition from the two Chinese electronic payment systems that dominate China. Alipay and Tenpay control over 60 percent of the market and won’t take Apple’s invasion lying down.

It will be impossible for Apple Pay to exist in China without agreements with the Big Four state-run banks: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China. Reports say Apple has cut deals with these banking giants but still faces formidable regulatory hurdles that might negate its Feb. 8 launch.

In Canada, the Apple Pay icon has begun showing-up on Apple Maps in Canada. These icons indicate where Apple Pay is accepted as payment. Retailers cited by the Apple Maps icon so far include Starbucks, McDonald’s, Tim Hortons, Esso and Uber, according to MobileSyrup.

Apple's mobile payment service had first launched in the United States last fall. This was the company's very first product that involves contactless mobile payments. The service arrived in the United Kingdom just this July.

Now, with just the use of their iPhones or through the Apple Watch, tech users can buy and pay for their purchases while they are on the go. Of course, the establishments that they buy the items from must support Apple Pay via NFC, or near field communication technology. In-app purchases can also be done through iPad Mini 4, iPad Mini 3, iPad Pro and iPad Air 2.

CNET has reported that Apple was in talks with six of Canada's largest banks with regards to an Apple Pay launch sometime in November. To be able to penetrate into Canada's payment system, however, the Cupertino company needs to bypass the very banks it has been negotiating with, in addition to the country's major credit card companies. Apparently, "negotiations were dragging”.

Considering that American Express, otherwise referred to as AmEx, only represents a very small percentage of credit card transactions in Canada, Apple pulled a new trick from its sleeve just to get its foot in the door. After all, the company had to come up with something after it was determined that no Canadian bank offers American Express cards with Apple Pay. The company applied changes to its strategy and dealt directly with AmEx.

Following Apple Pay's launch in Canada and Australia, the service is also expected to launch in Singapore, Hong Kong and Spain in 2016.

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