Apple and Alibaba plan to rollout Apple Pay in China together

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is currently in talks with Apple to discuss the specifics of the rollout of Apple Pay in China. Alibaba says that it’s positive about the potential partnership with the American technology giant, which will focus exclusively on the Chinese market, but that it will depend on the details being worked out as “there are certain restrictions and limitations on Apple’s payment business operations in China,” according to Apple Insider.

“Right now, I think what we can say is that this is focused on the China market for Apple,” Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai said in an interview, as quoted by The Wall Street Journal. “We are positive about the potential cooperation, but it depends on the details being worked out.”

Alibaba’s own electronic payment service, known as Alipay, is currently supported by a financial affiliate in China’s Zhejiang province, with one of the company’s potential moves forward being to let the financial affiliate provide back-end services for the Apple Pay payment system, which would allow iPhone users to pay the bill from their Alipay accounts using Apple Pay, according to ZDNet.

Apple serves to benefit quite a lot from this partnership, as the company has run into numerous issues while navigating the regulatory minefield required to enter the Chinese market, which the company considers one of its most important. Working alongside native Chinese companies will make things much smoother for Apple’s future releases.