Apple Pay coming to China this week, France in months, reports say

Apple Pay could be on the verge of launching in China and France, with the former debut potentially happening as soon as Feb. 18, a pair of reports indicated on Monday.

Chinese support is scheduled to start that day at 5 a.m. local time, according to the official WeChat account of China Guangfa Bank credit cards, as spotted by Tech in Asia. When interacting with the account, choosing an option for Apple Pay availability now offers the Feb. 18 date. Guangfa cards are connected with China UnionPay, Apple's official Apple Pay partner in the region.

Shoppers will allegedly need to have iOS 9.2 and/or watchOS 2.1 to make payments.

An announcement for France is expected in the next few months, possibly during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, a source for iGeneration claimed. There the service is expected to have a number of banks and card issuers in tow, unlike Canada and Australia, which are currently limited to American Express cards.

While Apple has not officially discussed any plans for France, the company is committed to launching Apple Pay in China in early 2016. In late January, some local shoppers reported successful transactions.

9 Comments

nolamacguy 10 Years · 4750 comments

About 8 years ago

do you remember when people complained about AP only being in the US? less than two years ago. yyyyeah.

bestkeptsecret 13 Years · 4289 comments

nolamacguy said:

do you remember when people complained about AP only being in the US? less than two years ago. yyyyeah.

As Pay rolls out to more countries, the complaints will change from "works only in the US" to "doesn't work in x country".

JeffAshe 9 Years · 8 comments

Apple has a lot of catching up to do in China. My work requires me to travel there each quarter. Using my WeChat app, I haven't really needed my credit card or cash for the past three years. I used the app for booking flights and hotel rooms, reserving train tickets, paying taxi fares and restaurant bills, shopping online, ordering food and furniture delivery, buying movie tickets, etc. I really wish we could have this level of cashless payment infrastructure in the US.

zozman 13 Years · 393 comments

nolamacguy said:

do you remember when people complained about AP only being in the US? less than two years ago. yyyyeah.

Well apparently Australia has it, but it only works with american express, most shops & businesses don't accept it (Surcharges are too big on the shops), so you tell me, does Australia really have apple pay yet?