The BI Intelligence Content Marketing Team covers news & research we think you would find valuable. This topic was originally highlighted and sent to subscribers of the Payments Insider newsletter. Apple Pay has hit the ground running in China. Chinese customers have loaded three million cards into Apple Pay within two days of the service's launch on February 18, according to sources who spoke to Internet Retailer. For comparison, Apple Pay garnered more than one million users in the U.S. in its first 72 hours. Within its first day in China, users spent an average of 101 yuan, or $15.42, and slightly less than 50% of the purchases cost more than 10 yuan, or $1.53. This is an early sign that Chinese Apple Pay customers are using it for common, everyday purchases, which suggests the ripe potential for habit forming and quick adoption, notes Jaime Toplin, research associate at BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. Apple Pay partnered with 19 of China's largest banks thanks to a partnership between the tech giant and UnionPay, China's state-affiliated card network. The service is available to almost all Chinese debit and credit card holders. Apple Pay's impressive start in China could be a positive sign for its long-term prospects in the world's most populous nation. China has an established mobile payments market thanks to Alipay and Tenpay's mobile wallet services, which make up more than 90% of the non-bank mobile wallet market in the country. Therefore, Apple must figure out a way to attract some of those users. To that end, the tech giant could have the advantage of offering discounts and deals. The top Apple Pay use on day one was Meituan.com, a Chinese coupon service similar to Groupon. In second place was Starbucks, which offered Apple Pay users a 15 yuan, or $2.30, discount for purchases more than 65 yuan, or $10. Incentive programs like that could convince Chinese customers to try Apple Pay. In the U.S., 44% of likely mobile wallet adopters said they would try one if they received some type of rewards program from it, according to a CMB Consumer Pulse survey. The strong early adoption of Apple Pay in China is yet another sign that the way consumers are paying for goods is changing. Customers are more frequently moving toward mobile wallets in lieu of traditional cash and cards. But what is the future of mobile payments? John Heggestuen, a managing research analyst on the BI Intelligence research team, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on mobile payments that analyzes how this landscape will transform in the next few years. Here are some of the key takeaways from the report: In full, the report: To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of how mobile payments are rapidly evolving.
Apple Pay has made an impressive start in China with a reported three million cards activated within two days of the service’s launch on 18 February. Users spent an average of ¥101 ($15.42) and just under 50% of the purchases cost more than ¥10 ($1.53), an early positive sign that Chinese Apple Pay customers are using it for everyday purchases. The biggest beneficiaries of Apple Pay were Meituan-Dianping, a Chinese coupon service similar to Groupon, and Starbucks.