Apple Pay is expanding to Switzerland, France and Hong Kong in the “next few months” and will be made available for online payments via an Apple Pay button that uses Touch ID for authentication, the company has announced during a keynote at its Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

The mobile payment service will be supported by Visa Europe for its launch in Switzerland and France. Other supporting payment networks are yet to be announced.

“We’re bringing Apple Pay to the web,” Apple’s senior VP of software engineering Craig Federighi told attendees at the event taking place in San Francisco this week. “So now, when you’re shopping online, you’ll have a Pay with Apple Pay button available to you.

“When you click it, a sheet comes down that actually prompts you to securely authenticate your purchase using continuity right on your iPhone with Touch ID. Of course, this works with your Apple Watch as well so you can authenticate with just a tap of your wrist and, already, many, many merchants are signed up to bring their web storefronts to support Apple Pay on the web.”

Participating merchants include Kohl’s, Toys R Us, Nike, Staples, Adidas, GrubHub, John Lewis, Etsy, GameStop, Topman, Just Eat and many more.

Further growth

“And Apple Pay is expanding hugely geographically,” Federighi added. “It’s now available in the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia, China and Singapore and, in the next few months, it’s coming to Switzerland, France and Hong Kong.”

“The Apple Pay expansion will catapult mobile payments into the mainstream in both France and Switzerland, offering Visa cardholders an easy, secure and private way to pay,” says Sandra Alzetta, executive director of product enablement at Visa Europe.

Reports that Apple Pay was expected to launch in Switzerland emerged last week. Plans to launch the mobile payment service for mobile websites were unveiled in March 2016.

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