Apple officially launched its Apple Pay service in China on Feb 18, through a partnership with China UnionPay and more than 20 Chinese banks, entering the country's competitive mobile payment race. 

Apple Pay uses a near-field communication technology, or NFC, to allow contactless data exchange between iPhone, Apple Watch and point of sale (POS) terminals, which is considered safer and more convenient than Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay and may have greater appeal to users. 

With strong support of its partners, Apple Pay may develop fast in China’s mobile payment market, competing with the country’s Internet titans Alibaba and Tencent who currently occupy 90 percent of the market.

However, it also has limitations. It can only be used on Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod, which largely restricts its potential users. Statistics show that its recent potential users can reach 30 to 40 million, far less than the combined 400 million users of Alipay and Wechat Pay.

Experts say that the entering of Apple Pay will advance the development of the mobile payment industry and increase competition among service providers. In face of the pressure from Apple Pay, other service providers will look for ways to improve their user experience, which in turn will benefit the entire mobile payment industry.