In a significant boost to mobile payments in China, the country’s sole card processor China UnionPay Co. Ltd. has formed a partnership with handset maker HTC Corp. to launch a phone with a built-in mobile-payment facility.
Claimed to be the first such phone in the Chinese market, the device will enable users to pay for purchases at the point of sale using Near Field Communication technology, the companies noted in an Aug. 9 press release.
HTC will launch the phone in early September in China, enabling users initially to pay for movie tickets and mobile bills, a UnionPay spokesperson tells PaymentsSource. Taiwan-based HTC has been involved with helping develop China’s mobile-payments infrastructure for more than a year. The initial launch of the phone will be limited to a select few cities, he says.
China has almost 400,000 merchant locations with POS terminals that can accept China UnionPay cards. UnionPay plans to modify the devices so they can accept contactless payments.
The spokesperson was unable to confirm who the banking partners for the launch would be or whether the service would come with a charge. An HTC spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
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