Update: Apple Pay launched in a total of 13 markets today. The full list includes Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.
Apple Pay has debuted in four new countries. The mobile payment service is now live in Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Portugal.
Apple has said that Apple Pay will be supported in 40 countries by the end of 2019. This marks yet another step toward that goal.
In Slovakia, Apple Pay is supported by Boon, Edenred, J&T Banka, Monese, N26, Revolut, Slovenska Sporitelna, Tatra banka, and mBank. In Portugal, it’s supported by N266 and Revolut. In Portugal, it’s supported by Monese, N266, and Revolut. We haven’t yet received a list of supporting banks in Greece and Romania.
There may be other countries opening up as well. If you live in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania or Malta it’s worth checking availability. If you do, drop us a line so that we can update this post.
The rise of Apple Pay
Apple first introduced Apple Pay to the U.S. back in October 2014. Since then, Apple has continually expanded the service.
Tim Cook has previously suggested that rolling out Apple Pay had proven more challenging than expected to roll out. “Mobile payments have taken off slower than I personally would have thought if you asked me sitting here a few years ago,” he said.
Nonetheless, multi-country launches like today’s certainly show that Apple is making headway!