Apple Stock News

Apple CEO Tim Cook told the official Xinhua news agency in an interview on Tuesday that he is very bullish on Apple Pay in China. The payment service was introduced in the US last September and, according to Apple, quickly began handling more transactions than all other contactless payment methods combined. In the interview, Cook said he believes the payment service could take off even faster in China.

Apple and Cook have placed a larger emphasis on the Chinese market over the past year, as analysts believe that it could overtake the Americas to become the company’s biggest market. During the first three months of the year, Apple sold more iPhones in China than in the US for the first time, and Apple overtook Xiaomi as the largest vendor of smartphones in China according to market researcher International Data Corporation.

Getting Apple Pay into China could prove to be a challenge, the most troubling of which is UnionPay, China’s state-owned credit and debit card operator. Reports from earlier this year claimed Apple was making progress in talks with the company, but they later stalled. A way around this problem is working with Alibaba and its payment service Alipay. The partnership could be mutually beneficial, as Apple will gain entry into the market and Alipay will benefit from the NFC and Touch ID technology of Apple Pay, but Apply will most likely have to decrease their fees related to the service.