(Chinese Version)

　　When Apple Pay officially entered mainland China on February 18th, 2016, some media pinned great hopes on it, believing that Apple Pay could rise into one of the three dominant mobile payment tools in China, together with Alipay and WeChat Wallet. However, things didn’t seem to go as expected when we look back a year later.

　　Apple Pay, the undisputed dominant mobile payment service provider in Europe and US

　　Two and a half years ago, Tim Cook officially introduced Apple Pay during the Autumn Press Conference held on September 10th, 2014. On October 20th, the service was available in the US.

　　However, Apple is, to any degree, a late entrant in the mobile payment market and has to face huge competition from PayPal, Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Based on marketing research company Investment Technology Group’s statistics, volume of mobile payment transactions conducted through PayPal reached $46 billion as of November 2014, making PayPal accounting for 78 per cent share of American digital payment market.

　　However, Apple was well prepared before entering this market. After all, it sold smartphones, the very terminal of mobile payment. Therefore, it came as no surprise that Apple soon caught up and even surpassed PayPal two years later. Today, Apple Pay has already become the most popular mobile payment tool in the US.

　　Based on Boston Retailing Partner (BRP)’s statistics, as of February 2017, over 36 per cent of American business owners have adopted Apple Pay, while its biggest rival PayPal’s market support rate only reached 34 per cent. In other words, Apple has grown to become the dominant player in the American mobile payment market.

　　Besides, according to an analysis of American consumers’ credit card bill record by the third-party research organization TXN in January, Apple Pay’s transaction volume jumped by over 50 per cent in 2016. Imagine its popularity. In a recent conference call, Apple also revealed that its global transaction volume in Q4 2016 rose by 500 per cent compared with the same period a year ago.

　　Up till now, Apple Pay has already entered over ten countries and regions, including the UK, France, Australia, etc. It is recently reported that Apple Pay is to enter South Korea, the headquarter of Samsung.

　　Apple Pay might have met with a cold welcome in the Chinese mobile payment market

　　Therefore, it’s natural Apple Pay would eye on China, the biggest mobile payment market in the world. When Apple teamed up with Apple Pay and launched Apple Pay in mainland China, the market was thrilled. It is reported that 30 million iPhone users add their debit card to their Apple Pay accounts the day the service was launched and the transaction volume grew by 150 per cent for the first few days.

　　When Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller was asked of Apple Pay’s ambition in China during his visit to China at the beginning of 2016, he pointed out that the entry into China was a milestone for Apple Pay. Besides, he admitted that he was well aware of the competition in the Chinese mobile payment market, stressing that:

　　“Apple Pay would focus on our own services. Apple believes that digital payment will be the future, and nobody will bother to bring a wallet on street. Apple’s goal is to provide a mobile payment tool that’s ‘convenient, handy, safe and reliable’.”

　　However, when Apple’s senior executives were so optimistic about Apple Pay’s popularity in major first-tier cities, they also found that people’s enthusiasm into Apple Pay faded as quickly as it rose and competition from Alipay and TenPay (WeChat Wallet) went far beyond their imagination. After all, the Chinese mobile payment market has already become very mature even before Apple Pay entered, with major players including Alipay, WeChat Wallet as well as QQ Wallet and JD Wallet. More importantly, most Chinese smartphone users have already been accustomed to paying bills by scanning QR codes with their smartphones.

　　According to Analysys International’s report last October, the overall transaction volume of the Chinese third-party mobile payment market in the first half of 2016 has reached 13.474 trillion RMB (over $1.959 trillion). More specifically, the overall transaction volume in Q2 reached 7.5037 trillion RMB (over $1.091 trillion), an increase of 25.68 year-on-year. Besides, Alipay ranked 1st in the Chinese mobile payment market, accounting for 55.4 per cent of the overall market, while TenPay ranked 2nd with 32.1 per cent share of the market. In comparison, Apple Pay’s market share, however, is negligible.

　　Low market penetration rate and utilization rate coupled to make Apple Pay’s development caught in a very awkward situation. Many Chinese consumers would ask shop assistants if they could pay the bill via Apple Pay but be asked back: “What are you saying, exactly?” Since it’s very convenient for consumers to pay bills by scanning QR codes, many business owners would stick their QR codes in stores. However, since few consumers would use Apple Pay, few business owners would bother to upgrade their machines, which would also backfire and annoy many Apple Pay users, since most business owners know what’s Apple Pay.