Apple officially launches Apple Pay in China on Feb.18th, 2016, which has caused a sensation. Now China has become the first country in Asia and the fifth in the world available for this payments service allowing iPhone users have in-store purchases and pay by phone. In theory, Apple Pay is probably the best tool of payment with the most secure technology and experienced practice. Besides, China is the second largest market with tremendous contribution to Apple’s revenue. Strong brands are important both for the consumer as they create trust and a form of quality certification, and for the company as they act as barrier to competition, improve profitability and are a good base for product extension (Solomon, 2013), thus Apple did well in branding itself.

However, mobile payment services were already in widespread use in China. According to Sina, by the end of 2015, China has 358 million people, more than the total population of the United States, using mobile shopping. Analyzing competitive industry structure, Apple Pay is faced with threat of substitutes especially native competitors most people are used to. It is worth mentioning, Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Tenpay currently dominate China's electronic payments market giving people less reason to sign up to an additional one.

According to the marketing research, Apple chose to unite UnionPay and attracted over 30 million users on the first day in China. (People’s Daily Online, 2016) Apple Pay can easily expand its market across the country through UnionPay’s large-scale network. On the other hand, joining up with Apple Pay will help UnionPay and the banks win back market share of mobile payments from their rivals such as Alipay and Tenpay.

Solomon, M. R., Marshall, G. W. & Stuart, E. W. (2013) Marketing: Real people, real choices(7th ed). United Kingdom: Pearson Education.

Sina.(2016) Foreign media: It is difficult for Apple Pay to open the market in China than the United States. Retrieved from http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2016-02-18/doc-ifxprucu2971238.shtml

People's Daily Online. (2016). Apple Pay embraces over 30 million Chinese users on first-day debut. Retrieved from http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0219/c98649-9018786.html