Before it arrived in China earlier this year, Tim Cook called launching Apple Pay for the Chinese market “top of the list” in terms of Apple’s priorities.
Coming up to a year later, it now appears that Apple’s mobile payment service is also set to launch in Taiwan — at least according to a new report.
Digitimes notes that Taiwan’s regulatory government agency, the Financial Supervisory Commission, has started taking applications from local banks: an important step in the proper permissions being given for Apple Pay launching in the country.
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At first, the commission has noted that only credit card will be a valid payment method for Apple Pay, although debit cards may be allowed at a later date.
Four of Taiwan’s biggest banks are reportedly set to start offering the mobile payment service when it launches at the end of 2016 or early in 2017. These include Taiwan’s CTBC Bank, Cathay United Commercial Bank, E.SUN Commercial Bank and Taishin International Bank.
One thing that will be interesting to note about Apple Pay’s arrival in Taiwan are the transaction terms Apple will agree. In heavily populated China, Apple allegedly had to agree to considerably harsher terms with local banks than it did in the U.S. In fact, Apple only earns around half of what it does in the U.S. for every Apple Pay transaction in China.
With a population of just 23.5 million, Taiwan is a lot smaller, which may not give the country the same kind of negotiating leverage. To put the size difference in comparison, more Apple Pay users registered their cards in China in the first 12 hours of the service launching than live in the whole of Taiwan.
Either way, it seems that Apple Pay is set to add yet another new market over the next few months.
Are you a regular Apple Pay user? Leave your comments below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
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