Chinese consumers register 3m cards to Apple Pay in 48 hours

Chinese shoppers activated 3m bank cards with Apple Pay within two days of the mobile payment service’s launch, according to China Merchants Bank. “China Merchants Bank says its customers connected 1m bank cards with Apple Pay in the first two days of the launch, representing 35% of cards connected,” Internet Retailer reports. “China UnionPay reported that Apple Pay users spent 101 yuan (US$15.5) on average on the first day of the service and about 47% of purchases were above 10 yuan ($1.5).

China this month became the fifth country where consumers can use smartphones to pay with Apple Pay, and Chinese shoppers quickly embraced the Apple Inc. payment system.

In the first two days after the Feb. 18 launch, 3 million consumers linked their bank cards to Apple Pay according to China Merchants Bank, one of 19 Chinese banks involved in the rollout. The payment method can be used to pay in stores with compatible terminals and in mobile apps that link to Apple Pay.

Every Chinese consumer with a debit card and many with credit cards are eligible to use Apple Pay because Apple is collaborating with the country’s sole debit card network, China UnionPay. Banks have issued 5 billion cards that are accepted on the China UnionPay network, including 500 million credit cards, UnionPay says.

China Merchants Bank says its customers connected 1 million bank cards with Apple Pay in the first two days of the launch, representing 35% of cards connected with Apple Pay in China. Apple and China UnionPay both declined to confirm this data from China Merchants Bank.

Apple did say it is quite happy with the launch. “I would rate our first-day performance as 1,000, if the full score is 100,” Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay, said at a mid-February press conference in China. Apple also has rolled out Apple Pay in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Source: internetretailer.com