Chinese vendor Huawei has announced that it has agreed a deal with Union-Pay to expand the availability of it mobile payment service ‘Huawei Pay’.
In a statement, Huawei confirmed that its innovative payment service will now be available outside of its domestic market with the first official launch planned for Russia. Huawei has also disclosed that it plans to introduce the mobile payment service to a number of other countries and regions that have been identified by the Chinese state as priorities for future trading activities.
Huawei has enjoyed phenomenal success in the smartphone industry in recent years and continues to enjoy growth. Huawei Pay is the Chinese smartphone manufacturer’s retail payment application which uses NFC and biometrics to verify payments that are made with Huawei handsets.
Huawei Pay was officially launched in September 2016 in China and statistics have shown that in 2017 the application was used to perform $632 million worth of transactions. The payment service has proved very popular domestically and Huawei executives are confident they can replicate that success overseas.
Union-Pay is a credit and debit card company renowned globally and headquartered in China. Union-Pay cards are offered and distributed by banks all over the world, including the largest banks in China and other major financial institutions in various other countries and regions globally. In Russia, 1.3 million Union-Pay cards have been issued from ten of the country’s financial institutions.
Analysts are predicting the Chinese firm to enjoy success with the international expansion of its mobile payment service, although many have highlighted how competitive the mobile payment services industry is. Huawei will be moving into markets with services already offered by rival manufacturers on their handsets, such as South Korean conglomerate Samsung and US colossus Apple.
In addition to this, it will also be in competition with Google which offers similar services through Android Pay on any device running its operating system, including those offered by the Chinese vendor. Huawei has carefully devised a detailed strategy for its international launch and many are predicting the expansion of its mobile payment service Huawei Pay will be a success.
