Chinese internet giant Tencent is working to roll out its WeChat Pay mobile payment service to 10,000 Japanese stores by the end of 2016... More
China
Mobvoi to add NFC payments to smartwatches in China
Owners of Mobvoi’s Ticwatch will soon be able to make NFC payments at contactless terminals across China as the result of a partnership between the smartwatch maker, China UnionPay (CUP) and Oberthur Technologies (OT). More
Ant Financial takes Alipay to Germany with Concardis
Chinese tourists will soon be able to make payments at 210,000 store locations in Germany serviced by payment provider Concardis using Ant Financial’s Alipay mobile payment platform. The move marks the service’s launch into Europe after the company unveiled its expansion plans at Money20/20 Europe in April 2016. More
Samsung Pay makes European debut in Spain
Samsung Pay has begun rolling out across Spain, making it the first European market where the mobile payment service is available. The service has launched with support from CaixaBank and ImaginBank and will also be available for customers of Abanca and Banco Sabadell “soon”. More
Alipay users in China can now make payments through Samsung Pay
Alipay users across China will now be able to make in store payments by scanning QR codes through the mobile payment platform using Samsung Pay, as a result of a partnership between Samsung and Alipay parent company Ant Financial... More
Samsung Pay expected to enable support for Alipay
Samsung and Chinese internet giant Alibaba are to announce a collaboration on mobile payment systems this week, according to Yonhap News Agency... More
Samsung Pay adds membership and loyalty cards in the US
Samsung Pay users across the US can now add their merchant membership and loyalty cards to the mobile payment service and receive savings, rewards and other offers by having a card’s barcode scanned by the cashier at the point of sale. More
Apple Pay expands to MasterCard, Visa and five key banks in Canada
Canadian consumers can now add their MasterCard and Visa credit cards as well as their Interac debit cards to Apple Pay after the mobile payments service launched in the country with support from American Express alone in November 2015. Five banks have also announced their support for Apple Pay, including two of the country’s largest — Royal Bank of Canada and BMO Financial Group. More
More than half of payment cards shipped in 2015 were contactless
Contactless technology was built into 56% of all smart cards shipped globally excluding the Americas in 2015, up from 42% in 2014, the Smart Payment Association reports... More
Apple Pay gets 1m new users every week
Apple Pay is now signing up 1m new users per week, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed during the company’s second quarter earnings call... More
Xiaomi to launch Xiaomi Pay in China
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is to launch an NFC based Xiaomi Pay mobile payment service in partnership with China UnionPay... More
Samsung Pay to launch in Singapore in Q2 this year
Samsung Pay will launch in Singapore in the second quarter of this year, the company has announced, adding it to South Korea, the US and China on the list of Samsung’s “priority markets”... More
Baidu Wallet launches in Thailand
China’s Baidu has launched its Baidu Wallet mobile payment service in Thailand, enabling Chinese tourists to pay for goods and services there with their mobile phone... More
Apple Pay launches in Singapore
Apple Pay has begun rolling out across Singapore, letting consumers pay in store with compatible Apple devices and make purchases within participating mobile apps using their American Express cards, with support from Visa expected “soon”... More
WeChat integrates with Givex to push in-store presence
Chinese ecommerce giant Tencent’s WeChat mobile payments and messaging app has been integrated with Givex’s Vexilor point-of-sale solution to enable users of the service to make in-store purchases by scanning a QR code. More
Alipay to expand to Europe this summer
Chinese mobile payments platform Alipay, which has 450 million active users, is to be made available in Europe this summer, enabling Chinese shoppers to make payments in stores, receive offers and view nearby shops and restaurants that accept the mobile payments service. More
Xiaomi to launch Xiaomi Pay?
Handset maker Xiaomi has filed a patent in Korea for a mobile payment service called Xiaomi Pay, The Korea Herald reports... More
Samsung Pay launches in China
Samsung Pay has begun rolling out across China, letting consumers make mobile payments with a compatible device “virtually anywhere you can swipe or tap your card” using their China UnionPay debit and credit cards. More
Tencent reports major increase in mobile payment users
Chinese internet giant Tencent has reported that the number of monthly active users (MAU) of its mobile payments services has increased by seven times over the last year... More
Huawei teams up with China UnionPay to roll out NFC mobile payments
Handset maker Huawei has partnered with bank card association China UnionPay for the roll out of Huawei Pay, an NFC-based mobile payment service that makes use of tokenization technology and is expected to be available on a wide range of Huawei handsets. More