苹果支付签约四大行 明年2月进中国

据《华尔街日报》报道，苹果将中国看作下一个拓展移动支付的国际市场，已经与包括中国工商银行、中国银行在内的四大行签订协议，方便iPhone、iWatch和iPad用户在Apple Pay中关联个人银行账号。

Apple Pay已于2014年上线。美国、英国、加拿大和澳大利亚的iPhone 或Apple Watch用户将信用卡和借记卡的信息上传到“移动钱包”后，如果商家安装了支持近场通信（NFC）的收银机，用户就可以用苹果设备直接完成支付。如果程序员在开发时将支付服务整合在应用里，用户在购买应用内商品时也可以通过Apple Pay账户直接付款。

苹果最近与金融服务业巨头签署了协议，要将支付服务范围扩大到加拿大、澳大利亚、西班牙、新加坡和中国香港。

然而，中国市场对苹果越来越重要。截至今年9月末的第四财季，苹果在华的营业收入激增近一倍，达到125亿美元。苹果首席执行官蒂姆·库克最近表示，中国终将成为苹果在全球最大的市场。

中国的移动支付领域竞争激烈。阿里巴巴旗下蚂蚁金融服务集团运营的“支付宝”拥有超过3.5亿用户。互联网巨头腾讯也有叫“财付通”移动钱包服务。据研究机构易观智库统计，在国内移动支付市场，支付宝的市场占有率约为45%，财付通占据将近19%。苹果可能正考虑与蚂蚁金服或腾讯合作。

以搜索引擎起家的美国科技业巨头谷歌也一直密切关注中国市场。有报道称，谷歌正与蚂蚁金服合作，联手开拓旗下应用商店Google Play在华业务。

苹果已拒绝就上述相关报道发表评论。

译者：Pessy

校对：夏林

Apple is eyeing China as the next international market for its mobile payments technology, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Apple has already inked deals with China’s four largest state-run banks, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and the Bank of China, says the report, which would allow iPhone, iWatch, and iPad users to connect the payments service to their bank accounts.

Introduced in 2014, Apple Pay AAPL 0.96% lets users upload credit and debit card information to a “mobile wallet.” Customers can then use their iPhone or Apple Watch to pay at retail stores in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia that have point-of-sale registers equipped with near field communication technology, known as NFC. People can also use their Apple Pay accounts to pay for items within apps if the app developer has integrated the service.

Apple recently inked deals with financial services giant to expand the service into Canada, Australia, Spain, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

However, China is increasingly an important market for Apple. The company’s fourth quarter in China doubled to $12.5 billion, and CEO Tim Cook recently said that China will eventually be Apple’s top market in the world.

In terms of payments, China is a competitive battleground. Alipay, which is a mobile wallet operated by Alibaba BABA -0.55% spinoff-Ant Financial, has over 350 million users in China. Tencent also offers a mobile wallet called Tenpay. According to research firm Analysys, Alipay’s share of the mobile payments market was around 45%, with Tenpay commanding nearly 19%. Apple could be considering partnering with Ant Financial or Tencent.

Search giant Google GOOG -1.02% has also been eyeing China, and is reportedly partnering with Ant Financial for expansion of its app store, Google Play, in the country.

Apple declined to comment to Fortune on the report.