Apple Pay Has Silently Entered China

Apple Pay, the mobile payment service launched alongside the iPhone 6 last has finally made headway in China.

Jian Danian, the Vice Chairman of Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone said at an event that Apple Pay as “a new business mode” has already been launched within the Shanghai Special Economic Zone, beginning some operations in June, according to The Paper.

Apple has registered an entity company named “苹果技术服务（上海）有限公司” (Apple Technical Service Shanghai Ltd.) to primarily run the Apple Pay service in China, as well as a series of integration services.

It has listed its legal representative is Gary Joseph Wipfler, who serves as Vice President and Corporate Treasurer of Apple Inc. The entity reportedly has a registered capital of $13.4 million USD.

In May this year Apple’s Tim Cook told Chinese state media Xinhua that the company intended to roll out their Apple payments system on the mainland, and that they were in discussions with Alibaba as well as a series of Chinese banks.

“We very much want to get Apple Pay in China,” Cook said to Xinhua at the time. “I’m very bullish on Apple Pay in China.”

Apple has not revealed how the current Apple Pay system works, or how it will interact with popular payment systems in China including Alibaba’s Alipay.