蘋果支付在中國前途坎坷五原因

When the iPhone 6 arrived in China 11 days ago, Apple Pay was disabled. Caixin, the country’s top business magazine, which reported a month ago that Apple Inc AAPL 1.55% had reached an agreement with UnionPay, the state-owned payment processing system, to activate Apple Pay in the country, now says Apple Pay isn’t expected until March.

11天前，iPhone 6在中國上市，但蘋果支付（Apple Pay）功能卻未能啓用。中國頂尖商業媒體財新（Caixin）曾在上月報道稱，蘋果公司與中國國有的支付處理系統銀聯（UnionPay）達成了協議，將在中國境內激活Apple Pay功能。但該媒體如今表示，Apple Pay預計到明年3月才能開始在中國使用。

Even if it arrives by the spring, Apple Pay has a tough road ahead in China. Why?

即便明年春天Apple Pay得以登陸中國，恐怕也將舉步維艱。爲什麼呢？

1. China’s use of credit and debit cards is far below that of Western countries. For now the country remains a cash-based society, something that Apple can’t quickly change. Here’s a list of cash-only sellers in Beijing: taxis, McDonalds, small markets and shops, lunch stalls and cafeterias, many restaurants, even tourist ticket stalls. Electronic swipes just aren’t as popular yet.

1、中國信用卡和借記卡的使用範圍遠小於西方國家。今天的中國仍然以現金交易爲主，蘋果很難迅速改變這種情況。在北京，只接受現金付款的包括：出租車、麥當勞（McDonalds）、小型集市和商店、快餐攤點、食堂、許多餐廳、甚至旅遊景點的售票亭。電子刷卡消費在中國尚不普及。

2. Electronics transfers are, though, and that’s why Tim Cook was reciprocating some love for Alibaba’s BABA 1.93% Jack Ma yesterday. Ma owns Alipay, a separate company from Alibaba that handles almost all the transactions on Alibaba’s marketplaces. Alipay’s QR code technology lets consumers pay at stores with the setup. Because of Alipay’s ubiquity—almost everyone in China’s big cities uses it—Apple Pay might have to share profits with Alibaba in order to get a foothold in China. Hence, again, Cook and Ma’s marriage talk.

2、佔領中國電子支付市場並不容易。這也是爲何蒂姆o庫克對阿里巴巴（Alibaba）董事長馬雲伸出的橄欖枝反應積極。馬雲旗下的支付寶（Alipay）是獨立於阿里巴巴的另一家公司，負責處理阿里巴巴平臺上的幾乎所有交易。藉助二維碼技術，顧客利用支付寶應用就能在門店內完成支付。由於支付寶使用很廣泛——中國大城市裏幾乎人人都用它——爲了在中國站穩腳跟，Apple Pay可能必須得與阿里巴巴分享利潤。因此，庫克和馬雲再一次商討了合作問題。

3. The precedent isn’t on Apple’s side here. Visa, Mastercard, and American Express fought China for years to follow World Trade Organization rules and open its card system to foreign companies. Nothing happened. China has already discriminated against foreign processing companies, so why would it treat Apple much different?

3、從先前的案例來看，蘋果處於劣勢。Visa卡、萬事達卡（Mastercard）和美國運通（American Express）奮鬥多年，想讓中國按照世界貿易組織（World Trade Organization）的規定對外國公司開放銀行卡系統，但中國不爲所動。中國政府已經拒絕了好幾家國外的支付處理公司，憑什麼對蘋果另眼相看呢？

4. China is still concerned about cyber security. Apple has come under fire from state media in the country over user security. Analysts believe China would rather use homegrown technologies in many areas of tech for security reasons, and payments is one. With Alipay’s success, Apple faces a strong competitor, or a possible dominant partner.

4、中國仍在擔心網絡安全。蘋果前不久才因爲用戶安全問題遭到美國媒體的抨擊。分析家們認爲，中國政府出於安全考慮，更願意在許多領域上使用本土技術，支付領域就是其中之一。支付寶大獲成功，因此蘋果面對着一個強大的競爭對手，或是一個處於主導地位的合作伙伴。

5. UnionPay, the card processing monopoly in China, holds the keys for Apple Pay and will almost surely play tough. While Apple isn’t trying to compete directly with Unionpay, the monopoly controls transactions in China and likely won’t give Apple the same slice of revenues the company may receive elsewhere where Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover compete against each other.

5、中國銀聯壟斷了銀行卡領域，其手握Apple Pay進入中國的鑰匙，而且幾乎肯定會提出苛刻條件。由於蘋果不準備與銀聯展開直接競爭，因此控制了中國國內交易的銀聯給蘋果讓出的收入，可能會低於蘋果在其他地區由於萬事達卡、Visa卡、美國運通和Discover多家競爭獲得的收入。