Early Apple Pay Reception Tepid Outside of United States

[MacRumors]

Apple Pay is seeing a lukewarm reception in many countries outside of the United States and is making just a "small dent" in the global payments market, according to a new report from Reuters.

In 2015, Apple Pay usage totaled $10.9 billion, most of which came from the United States. That figure is perhaps unsurprising as Apple Pay has been available in the United States since 2014 and only began rolling out to additional countries in 2015. Apple Pay is now available in the United States, the UK, China, Canada, Australia, and Singapore.

Though Apple Pay is in the early stages of adoption outside of the United States, it seems to be struggling to gain a foothold in the countries where it's now available. In China, Apple Pay has to compete with established payment services Alibaba and Tencent, and according to research conducted by Reuters, Chinese users have complained that using Apple Pay is not as seamless as WeChat, Tencent's payment service.

In Britain and Australia, contactless payment cards are in wide use, so iPhone users need to go to the trouble of adding their cards to Apple Pay. Juniper Research analyst Windsor Holden told Reuters that the prevalence of contactless cards makes it more difficult to persuade people to adopt Apple Pay.

"You have over 86 million contactless cards in circulation, you have to persuade Britons to register their cards to the (Apple Pay) service when they can already use them to make a contactless payment," Holden said

Bendigo Bank in Australia says it is experiencing "some unforeseen technical issues" accepting Apple Pay payments at select merchant terminals, something Apple Pay vice president Jennifer Bailey told Reuters was "not representative" of the Apple Pay experience.

Apple Vice President Jennifer Bailey said such experiences were premature and not representative. "Like any set of major technology changes, it takes time," she said. "We want to move as quickly as possible, we push it as quickly as possible."

In addition to a lukewarm reception in the countries where it is available, Apple Pay is seeing a slow global rollout due to the need to negotiate transaction fees with multiple partners. Apple makes approximately 15 cents for every $100 spent in the United States, but has had to negotiate lower fees in some countries. Apple has also faced resistance in locations like Australia, Canada, and the UK because banks in these countries are building their own competing payment products.

Apple Pay hasn't yet caught on globally, but Apple is "working rapidly" to expand Apple Pay to additional locations in Asia and Europe. Apple Pay is expected to debut in Hong Kong in the near future through a partnership with American Express, which will also bring the payments service to Spain later this year. Rumors and leaked documents also point towards negotiations to bring Apple Pay to France, Brazil, and Japan in the not-too-distant future.

In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Bailey said Apple considers a number of factors when deciding where to deploy Apple Pay, including the size of the Apple product market, credit and debit card penetration, and existing contactless payment coverage.

Article Link: Early Apple Pay Reception Tepid Outside of United States

 

[DavidTheExpert]

I stopped using Apple Pay months ago, simply because the TouchID is so damn unreliable.

It took me longer to finagle the stupid thing to read my fingerprint than the time it takes to pull out my credit card and even use the chip reader thing.

 

[Dale Dangler]

Apple Pay is great, just not a lot of people accept it, or make it obvious enough even if they do.

 

[leon44]

This contradicts what I've seen in the UK. I've been really impressed by how quickly Apple Pay is taking off here, helped by the fact it's accepted almost everywhere.

 

[OziMac]

Um, Bendigo Bank has Apple Pay? As a customer that's been waiting for it, that's the first I've heard of it.

 

[djbuddha]

The Canadian part of this report is extremely skewed as 3 of the 5 major banks signed on around 2 weeks ago ... And the others (and arguably the most popular) signed on THIS MORNING.

 

[Abazigal]

Just got it in Singapore. Striving to use it at least once a day. Hope to see it supported in more places.

 

[lampwins]

The problem is Apple isn't signing up enough retailers. For every 10 banks they sign up they seem to only be adding 1 retailer. Retailers that have the capable technology are hesitant because they cant get any analytics from the data. This is where Apple needs to step in a forge some behind the scenes deals, otherwise Apple Pay is doomed.

 

[Sasparilla]

Interesting, I just used it today, here in the U.S. because it is much easier and faster than a Chip card experience. My bank had my debit card as a contactless card previously (which I stopped using due to security concerns with my Debit number getting stolen), but when it was upgraded to a Chip card last year they dropped the contactless option (so we've actually seen the contactless option go away here in the U.S.).

Appears in other countries people are already using a contactless option, so overcoming that inertia - even for a more secure transaction method - will be difficult as we're seeing play out.

Seems the U.S. market is about perfect for Apple, except for the large amount of stores not allowing contactless payments - if that wasn't there Apple and Google would own the market because of the ease they provide with security being the icing. Must be frustrating for Apple / Google execs.

 

[jclo]

I haven't been using Apple Pay much because my iPhone keeps randomly removing my card and it's a hassle to re-add it every couple of months.

 

[TEG]

This article makes it seem like the US didn't have contactless pay. I've had contactless pay since 2008 on a couple of my cards, but so few places accepted it, I never used it. Now we have chip cards (still no PINs, so they are no safer), which take so long, that Apple Pay is logical to use.

 

[lampwins]

At my local Bi-Lo they updated the software on their POS readers to start accepting chips and it somehow disabled Apple Pay. What's more concerning though is they removed all the signage saying they accepted Apple Pay...

 

[T5BRICK]

Apple pay sucks in the US too. To be honest though, it isn't really Apples fault.

It took over a year for my bank to adopt it, and since then I've only been to a handful of retailers that support anything besides cards with magnetic strips.

At least the other countries have more secure chip and pin based readers. Most places around here don't even support that.

 

[Stridder44]

I stopped using Apple Pay months ago, simply because the TouchID is so damn unreliable.

It took me longer to finagle the stupid thing to read my fingerprint than the time it takes to pull out my credit card and even use the chip reader thing.

Sounds like you may have a broken TouchID sensor? Or maybe when you set up your finger/thumb print, you did it at a weird angel? I've been using TouchID and Apple Pay on an iPhone 6 (not S) since day 1 at a variety of stores/locations all across the U.S. and can only think of 1 time I had an issue. Unless you're just complaining to complain, which is staggering on this forum nowadays. What the heck happened? I know it's only gotten worse over the years, but good lord.

 

[Stella]

I expect most people find tap to pay with their credit or debits cards just as convenient where available.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a distrust in ApplePay, security wise.

Personally I find ApplePay very good - has only failed once at an LCBO.

 

[Hastings101]

I stopped using Apple Pay months ago, simply because the TouchID is so damn unreliable.

It took me longer to finagle the stupid thing to read my fingerprint than the time it takes to pull out my credit card and even use the chip reader thing.

Do you mean the chip reader thing that takes like 30 seconds until it lets out a loud, horrible beep to tell you it's done? I haven't used Apple Pay, but if it's slower than that I wouldn't use it either.

 

[maxsix]

Apple Pay isn't a very good service, no wonder it's struggling.

 

[Thanatoast]

Even those stores which do accept it often don't and the cashiers have no idea why or how to fix it. I stopped trying to use it a while ago as my failure rate, again, at stores which explicitly accepted it, was much too high.

 

[Howyalikdemapls]

I stopped using Apple Pay months ago, simply because the TouchID is so damn unreliable.

It took me longer to finagle the stupid thing to read my fingerprint than the time it takes to pull out my credit card and even use the chip reader thing.

Do you have a 6S with the second generation finger print scanner or the 6/SE with the first gen?

I'm curious because I have a 6+ and I'm hoping I won't have issues when I get a new phone in September.

 

[blankspace]

This article is ridiculous ... Most of the countries outside of the US has only just seen adoption in the last couple of weeks.

Canada literally didn't officially support it until 2 weeks ago and the 3 major banks signed this morning....

This is a classic bait title and has zero grounds of truth. Canada twitter lit up this morning in celebration of apple pay.

 

[solamar]

I stopped using Apple Pay months ago, simply because the TouchID is so damn unreliable.

It took me longer to finagle the stupid thing to read my fingerprint than the time it takes to pull out my credit card and even use the chip reader thing.

Apple Pay works best with Apple Watch.. no thumb reader.. Always with you...

Where I live virtually every place on the strip I live by supports contactless, so I use it daily.. I just keep a single card in my wallet now .. just in case..

 

[Keirasplace]

This "news" is beyond trash, most countries had a very limited roll out until very recently.
Mac Rumor should be embarrassed to run this thing.

 

[samcraig]

And despite earlier talks with Apple... this is going on

http://appleinsider.com/articles/16...le-pay-in-china-thanks-to-alibaba-partnership

Samsung on Thursday announced it will bring its Samsung Pay mobile payments service to China through a partnership with e-commerce giant Alibaba's financial arm, an institution once rumored to be negotiating an identical deal for Apple Pay.

 

[Zirel]

The problem is Apple isn't signing up enough retailers. For every 10 banks they sign up they seem to only be adding 1 retailer. Retailers that have the capable technology are hesitant because they cant get any analytics from the data. This is where Apple needs to step in a forge some behind the scenes deals, otherwise Apple Pay is doomed.

Apple doesn't sign retailers.

Visa, MasterCard, Amex, etc. deal with the retailers.

This article is ridiculous ... Most of the countries outside of the US has only just seen adoption in the last couple of weeks.

Canada literally didn't officially support it until 2 weeks ago and the 3 major banks signed this morning....

This is a classic bait title and has zero grounds of truth. Canada twitter lit up this morning in celebration of apple pay.

Well... welcome to the world of news about "Apple is Doomed"

Apple Pay isn't a very good service, no wonder it's struggling.

Sure... what's good? Which service can I use with my watch seamlessly? Which one has broader adoption? CurrentC fan?

 

[Howyalikdemapls]

Sounds like you may have a broken TouchID sensor? Or maybe when you set up your finger/thumb print, you did it at a weird angel? I've been using TouchID and Apple Pay on an iPhone 6 (not S) since day 1 at a variety of stores/locations all across the U.S. and can only think of 1 time I had an issue. Unless you're just complaining to complain, which is staggering on this forum nowadays. What the heck happened? I know it's only gotten worse over the years, but good lord.

Maybe it's just my fingers but I have a 6+ and I have issues. I even have my right index and right thumb stored twice (taking up slots for 4 fingers) hoping that would double my chances of it reading successfully. It still doesn't work great and seems to taper off over time. Every couple of months I have to delete them and scan them in again to get them to work properly.