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No Need for China To Panic about Apple Pay

February 28, 2016

Published in Huanqiu
(China) on 19 February 2016
by Xiang Ligang (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Yuzhi Yang. Edited by Victoria Branca.

Financial security is undoubtedly a crucial part of a country’s overall security. Before we panic about Apple Pay arriving in China, we first have to learn about Apple Pay.

Apple Pay is different from Alipay. Alipay works as a wallet and manages the funds within. Alipay has billions in cash flow constantly; if it ever suffered volatility, a lot of people would be affected. Apply Pay works as a payment method and is an extension of a bank card. It is similar to a replica of the bank card for the cell phone, as in a virtual bank card. While it is called a wallet, it is not a real wallet. For example, if you were at a store and needed to swipe your bank card, with Apply Pay, you only need to take out your phone to pay. Apple Pay saves us the motion of taking out our bank card and is not its own payment system.

From a commercial operation standpoint, Apple and Unionpay do want to challenge Alipay and WeChat payment with Apple Pay, but there is some difficulty in getting a share of the Chinese market.

One, Apple Pay works with Near Field Technology as its payment technology. It pays without contact; however, this poses some problems. Because it is not a wallet, it works by linking various bank cards to its app to carry out payment, which is not easy for many users. Many users would worry that linking a lot of their bank cards to Apple Pay has risks.

Two, commercial support takes time. A big issue is the limited number of iPhone users, and Apple Pay requires a lot of stores to participate and to add Near Field Technology. Now we already know WeChat payment is relatively easy, we just need to look for a QR code. These two methods each have their problems, but also advantages.

Three, while Apple is not against doing Apple Pay on its own, it cannot do it on its own. China has concerns over financial security, so it would not issue a financial payment license to Apple, which differs from WeChat payment and Alipay. WeChat payment and Alipay work primarily as a wallet, but Apple Pay is linking funds with a banking system. It is hard to say whether banking systems are better than WeChat payment and Alipay at safekeeping. Unionpay has its own virtual wallet, but its promotion is far weaker than WeChat payment and Alipay. How the future market unfolds remains to be seen. The number of Apple Pay users in China is relatively small, since only around 20 percent of Chinese cell phones have it, while 80 percent to 90 percent of users are dependent on WeChat payment and Alipay.

Four, Apple Pay has not done as well as expected in other markets either in the past year. Can it split the Chinese market with Alipay and WeChat payment? It is possible but not likely.

Regardless of its commercial outlook, we do not have to worry about Apple Pay’s effect on national security. Apple is a business. Its primary goal is to make money. I think the importance of the Chinese market to Apple and Apple’s consistent attitude toward the Chinese government means that it has a different culture than Google. Apple will not instigate any ideologies and choose to oppose the Chinese government.

The author is a guest professor at the Beijing University of Post & Telecommunication and a renowned observer of the Chinese IT industry.

金融安全毫无疑问是一个国家的重要安全体系。但对于苹果支付(Apple Pay)落地中国，我们要先搞清楚这个Apple Pay到底是什么。

　　从性质上看，它和支付宝有区别。支付宝本身是钱包，具有对钱的管理能力。平时支付宝里有数以亿计的流动资金，支付宝一旦出现动荡，会影响太多人的利益。Apple Pay则不同，它只是一种支付手段，是银行卡的延伸。它是把银行卡复制到手机里，就有点像虚拟化了的银行卡。它虽然叫 “wallet”，却不是真正意义上的钱包。比如本来你到商店，需要掏出银行卡进行刷卡，有了Apple Pay，只要掏出手机就好。Apple Pay 省略的是我们掏出银行卡的动作，它本身不是一个支付体系。

　　从商业运营来说，苹果和银联的确是希望通过Apple Pay挑战支付宝、微信支付，但它想要在中国的支付市场三分天下得其一，我觉得有难度。

　　第一，apple pay是一个基于NFC(近距离无线通信技术)的支付系统，它拥有无需接触就能方便支付的特性，但是它也存在一些问题。它并不是一个钱包，而是要将多张银行卡进行关联来完成支付。实际上对很多用户来说操作起来并不容易，而且用户会认为自己的大量银行卡与之关联，可能存在安全隐患。

　　第二，商家支持需要时间。还有一个大问题，就是Iphone用户的数量是有限的，以后就需要有大量商户加入进来，并且要求加入的商户能够支持NFC的搜索方法。现在我们都知道微信支付相对简单，找二维码就可以解决问题。所以双方既有各自的问题，也有各自的优势。

　　第三，苹果不是不想自己干，因为它不能自己干。因为国家有金融安全方面的问题，所以不可能给苹果发放金融支付的牌照，这和微信支付以及支付宝的情况不一样。微信支付和支付宝实际上是一个钱包，但苹果是一个支付手段，负责把钱直接和银行系统联系起来。银行系统是不是在托管方面比支付宝和微信能力更强，这很难说。银联系统也搞自己的“钱包”，但它推动的能力远远不如支付宝和微信，所以未来到底是一个怎样的格局，还要看实际的情况。现在苹果用户的数量毕竟还是比较少，因为在中国的手机用户中苹果占20%多，相对占手机用户80%、90%的微信、支付宝用户来说，推动的能力相对较弱。

　　第四，Apple Pay在国外运行一年多的情况也没有那么理想，是不是能在中国和支付宝、微信支付形成三足鼎立的局面，可能性存在，但不是太大。

　　但不管它的商业前景如何，从国家安全来说，我们没必要太担心。苹果作为商业公司，首要目的是挣钱。况且，我认为从中国市场对苹果的重要性，以及苹果对中国政府的一贯态度可以看出，它的商业文化和谷歌不同，不会炒作什么意识形态，选择和中国政府对抗。(作者是北京邮电大学客座教授、中国 IT业知名观察家)

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