Apple Pay在華水土不服 慘遭支付寶微信碾壓

Feb. 18 marks the first anniversary of Apple Pay's entry into China. Despite being the most popular third-party payment service in the U.S., Apple Pay is currently underperforming its expectations in China.

截止2月18日，Apple Pay已經登陸中國市場一年了。儘管是美國最受歡迎的第三方支付平臺，但Apple Pay在中國的表現卻遠比不上預期。

Local payment services utilizing QR codes, such as WeChat and Alipay, are squeezing Apple Pay out of the market, the National Business Daily reported.

據《每日經濟新聞》報道，微信和支付寶等中國本土二維碼支付平臺正在把Apple Pay擠出中國市場。

According to Analysys, a big data analysis provider, domestic payment service providers took almost 99 percent of the market share in China's third-party mobile service industry in the third quarter of 2016.

據大數據分析公司易觀表示，2016年第三季度，中國國內支付平臺幾乎佔據了中國第三方移動支付產業99%的市場份額。

Of them, Alipay received 50.24 percent of the market share, followed by WeChat's 38.12 percent.

其中支付寶佔據了50.24%的市場份額，微信則爲38.12%。

Compared with QR code payments, reliance on hardware has hindered the growth of near-field communication (NFC) payments, which is Apple Pay's chosen mode, a UnionPay insider noted. Apple Pay only works on iPhone 6 devices and above, which also restricts the number of users.

據銀聯一位內部人士指出，和二維碼支付相比，Apple Pay選擇的近場通信由於依賴硬件而阻礙了其增長。Apple Pay只能用iPhone 6及更新版本手機使用，這也限制了用戶的數量。

In addition, the cost to maintain and upgrade the POS that supports NFC payment is high. There are currently about 6 million POS that support NFC payment nationwide.

此外，維護和升級支持近場通信POS機的成本也很高。目前全中國支持近場通信的POS機大概有600萬個。

It costs 300 RMB to upgrade a POS, and a new POS costs roughly 600 RMB. It therefore remains a significant challenge to convince shops to upgrade or install new POS in substantial numbers.

每升級一個POS機需要300元，而購置一個新的POS機大概需要600元。因此說服商家升級或安裝大量新的POS機是一個巨大的挑戰。

WeChat and Alipay also offer higher subsidies to shops that use their payment services, which discourages shops from setting up Apple Pay.

微信和支付寶對那些使用他們服務的商家支付的補貼也更高，這就使得那些商家更加不會使用Apple Pay。

As major drivers of Apple Pay in China, UnionPay and several major banking institutions actively promoted the service when it first entered China. But many of these institutions have already shifted their focus to QR code payments.

作爲Apple Pay在中國的主要推動因素，銀聯和幾家大銀行在Apple Pay剛剛進入中國時曾對其進行大力推廣。但是現在這些機構中許多都已經轉戰二維碼支付了。

However, the question remains: Does Apple Pay have a chance to stage a comeback?

但是，問題依然存在：Apple Pay能否捲土重來？

"From a technical perspective, NFC payment will have more market space in the future," predicted the UnionPay insider.

這名銀聯內部人士預測說：“從技術角度來看，近場通信支付將來會有更多市場空間。”

Li Chao, an analyst with iResearch, remarked that there is good reason for Apple Pay to exist in the Chinese market, as NFC technology offers advantages in security.

艾瑞諮詢分析師李超也認爲，有充分理由認爲Apple Pay將繼續在中國市場生存，因爲近場通信技術在安全方面具有優勢。