China’s mobile giant Huawei teams up with Bank of China on E-wallet payment

China’s mobile giant Huawei held a signing ceremony in Huawei’s Shenzhen headquarters with Bank of China to co-develop next mobile based payment system Huawei Pay. This announcement was just released after Apple Pay and Samsung Pay claimed to make its entry in to China.

The payment service that Huawei offers will support hardware products from mobile to wearable. The partnership plans to integrate both online and offline mobile payment business cooperation with Bank of China to provide barrier-free consumer services. Currently, BOC is the only partner for Huawei Pay, thus if Huawei wants to catch up or surpass Apple Pay, they have a lot banks to seal on the future agreement. It is said that including BOC will launch Huawei Pay with 19 Banks in China.

Just like with Apple Pay, NFC technology will be the basis of the payment service, which means the phone that contains a NFC chip will interact with in-store contactless reader when the users press their devices against them.

Xiaomi has also set its sights on this sector. The powerful Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are significant threat and powerful competitors to either Huawei or Xiaomi Pay, and also home grown giants Alipay and WeChat payment. The two players make up an estimated 80% of China’s mobile payment market. But Huawei Pay has its own vast market among its users, which includes large following abroad.