Apple identified Norway, Poland and Ukraine as the next markets to receive Apple Pay, while reporting a rise in global user numbers on the platform. CEO Tim Cook announced the next stage of expansion for its mobile payments service while discussing earnings in the three months to end-March, the company’s fiscal Q2, which came a matter of weeks after the service launched in Brazil. After the addition of the new countries, Apple Pay will be available in 18 European markets and 29 globally – including independent nations, principalities, dependents and self-governing states. Although Apple remains tight-lipped on any specific statistics for Apple Pay, Cook noted the number of active users doubled in the year to end-March, with the value of transactions at the end of fiscal Q2 2018 three-times higher than at 1 April 2017 (the end of its fiscal Q2 2017). Cook said adoption had been bolstered by increased acceptance in public transport systems in some of its largest markets – citing usage on the metro in Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing. Having being initially omitted from the Beijing metro in August 2017 when the transport network began accepting mobile payments, Apple Pay eventually started being accepted in March 2018. The company files Apple Pay figures along with its other services businesses including cloud storage, device insurance, App Store and music streaming service. Cook hailed Q2 as its “best quarter ever for services” adding “momentum continues to be incredibly strong”. Its revenue across the services unit was $9.2 billion for the quarter, up 31 per cent year-on-year.
Apple Pay will be released in Norway, Poland and Ukraine, making the mobile payment service available in 30 countries worldwide. CEO Tim Cook made the announcement, saying that Apple Pay’s active users doubled in the three months to the end of March compared with the same period a year before, while transaction value was three times higher. Cook cited the rollout of Apple Pay to public transport systems in Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing as helping fuel the growth. He claimed the period was Apple's best-ever quarter for services, with revenue up 31% year on year to $9.2bn.