China Guangfa Bank backtracked on Tuesday of its leak that by 5 a.m. on Feb. 18, Thursday, Apple Pay will be available in China. The lender previously posted the leak on its WeChat account but deleted it later.
The Cupertino-based tech giant had announced in December the entry of Apple Pay in China through a partnership with China UnionPay, the biggest bank card association in the Asian giant and Apple’s largest overseas market. However, it did not provide a specific date, leading to speculations.
But the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, in social media postings, confirmed what China Guangfa Bank earlier leaked, reported Reuters. Ahead of an Apple confirmation, it website in China listed 19 Chinese banks as its official partners.
China Guangfa’s leak, despite being retracted, nevertheless boosted the shareprices of Apple Pay’s rivals in the country, reported China Daily. That’s because the entry of the cash-free smartphone payment service to China is also expected to boost the business of Alibaba Group, Xiaomi Corp. and other local enterprises in the same industry.
According to Royal-Flush Information, a market monitor, stocks of 30 Chinese companies engaged in mobile payment went up by an average of 6.69 percent on the day that China Guangfa leaked the date of Apple Pay’s debut in the country. The gainers were led by Nantian Electronic Information and Eastcom peace Technology which advanced by 10 percent.
E-commerce giant Alibaba currently has the lion’s share of the smartphone payment market, but all that is expected to change with the entry of Apple Pay, said Li Chao, analyst of iResearch Consulting Group based in Beijing.