Huawei has signed an agreement with UnionPay International in a bid to bring its Huawei Pay payment service to more countries around the world.
Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei is working with financial services company UnionPay to take its Huawei Pay service global and provide a better mobile payment experience for users of its mobile devices.
The two companies initially joined forces in 2016 in order to develop Huawei Pay, essentially an alternative to Apple Pay and Google Wallet. Now, they’re looking to expand the availability of the app.
With the app, Huawei and Honor smartphone owners are able to make payments by adding their UnionPay bank cards and placing their handsets on a POS (point of sale) machine. The service has only been available in China until now.
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Bold expansion plans
There are clearly many mobile payments apps out there and plenty of competition. Huawei is trying to differentiate its offering with the claim that it focuses no security, using all-device protection and payment token technology in order to protect users’ privacy and data.
Currently, the service is supported by 66 banks and 20 mobile devices, including smartphones and smartwatches. Huawei expects the app to increase in popularity as it sells more smartphones and smartwatches across the world. It claimed the expansion of the app will “increase the number of Huawei Pay transactions carried out annually”.
Alex Zhang, president of Huawei Consumer Cloud Service, said that mobile payment services are becoming an integral part of the global economy. “Open sharing is an important direction for the future of the digital economy and intellectual interconnection, which is why Huawei’s end-user cloud services built an open and globalised smart mobile ecosystem for the end-user experience,” he said.
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Russia first
The companies confirmed that Russia will be the first market to get the service. At the moment, 85 percent of Russian POS terminals and ATMs accept UnionPay bank cards.
Larry Wang, vice president of UnionPay International, said it regularly forms partnerships with technology companies and financial organisations to “integrate the advantages of each party”.
He said: “This cooperation with Huawei is of great significance. Firstly, with this agreement, the two sides realise cooperation on a global scale, and issuers outside mainland China can now launch Huawei Pay pay-as-you-go once connected to the UnionPay Mobile Service Platform, which greatly saves time and costs.
“Secondly, UnionPay’s innovative products are an important propeller for the business localisation of the two parties, and it supports payment upgrades in more countries and regions.”
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