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Apple Now Accepting UnionPay as Payment Option for App Store Customers in China

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple today announced that it is now accepting UnionPay as a payment option for App Store customers in China. Established in 2002, UnionPay is the most popular payment card company in China with over 4.5 billion cards issued. With today's announcement, users can simply link their UnionPay debit or credit card for easy purchases.
"The ability to buy apps and make purchases using UnionPay cards has been one of the most requested features from our customers in China," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "China is already our second largest market for app downloads, and now we're providing users with an incredibly convenient way to purchase their favorite apps with just one-tap."
Click to expand...
The acceptance of UnionPay in the App Store is the latest move by Apple to expand its presence in China. The company is also in talks with major Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba over a China-focused payments partnership, which could see the Alipay electronics payment service integrate with Apple Pay. Discussions between the two companies were acknowledged by Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai and Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

Article Link: Apple Now Accepting UnionPay as Payment Option for App Store Customers in China
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/17/apple-unionpay-app-store-china/
You also see UnionPay in many shops in the UK that are in tourist or major shopping malls (as well as Heathrow Airport). The idea being to make it as easy as possible to encourage the Chinese tourist to spend in these shops.

I've seen more UnionPay stickers on shop windows than Diners Club (as far as I know European Diners Club cards don't have the link to MasterCard so if the place doesn't accept Diners Club your card can't be used there).
 
UnionPay is now apparently the second largest credit card network by revenue after Visa.


A lot of UnionPay cards are co-branded with Visa/American Express/MasterCard, so if the store doesn't take UnionPay it will fall back to the other network. But with wider acceptance of UnionPay, it will be interesting to see if these cards will continue to be co-branded, or it will end up that western issuers co-brands with UnionPay!

Well, on the bright side, the Chinese are now paying for their apps legitimately.
 
I believe UnionPay is a joint venture of all the major banks in China; that's why everybody has a number of UnionPay cards. Most people don't have Visa/Mastercard (or any Western credit card) in China as the Chinese financial markets are tightly controlled by the government. So this is a big deal for Apple because more people are expected to be able to download paid apps.
 
virtually all bank cards issued by every bank in china has the Union Pay logo on the back. Union Pay for most people in China is not a credit card. the Union Pay logo is equivalent to the Cirrus or Plus networks. it is usually just a debit service directly from your bank.

therefore apple has linked up with literally almost a billion cards.
apple pay in china replaces the "card present" physical card signing/password.

the challenge in china is that there are relatively few NFC terminals yet for iPhone to use.
 
niji said:
virtually all bank cards issued by every bank in china has the Union Pay logo on the back. Union Pay for most people in China is not a credit card. the Union Pay logo is equivalent to the Cirrus or Plus networks. it is usually just a debit service directly from your bank.

therefore apple has linked up with literally almost a billion cards.
apple pay in china replaces the "card present" physical card signing/password.

the challenge in china is that there are relatively few NFC terminals yet for iPhone to use.
Click to expand...
This isn't about Apple Pay, just Apple Stores taking cards.
 
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