Apple Pay NFC Payments Arrive In Taiwan

The highly acclaimed NFC payment service, Apple Pay seems to be on a perpetual swing. With new users connecting to the Apple Pay network every now and then, the latter is crossing the boundaries reaching new countries and territories. Apple Pay was launched two years ago in October 2014 and within a short span of time, it has gone mainstream in over 14 countries. The most recent addition to the Apple Pay friendly countries is Taiwan.

Several financial institutions in Taiwan such as United Bank, CTBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Union Bank of Taiwan and Taipei Fubon have come forth to support Apple Pay. As a matter of fact, many local merchants in Taiwan are already accepting contactless payments via Apple Pay, Android Pay and several other NFC payment methods. Some examples are Carrefour, PXMart, Eastern Department Stores and the Breeze Center. Many FamilyMart stores in Taiwan are also accepting Apple Pay NFC payments but only for the customers of Taishin International Bank and Union Bank of Taiwan as of now.   

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Apple Pay: An Overview

For those who don’t know, Apple Pay is a digital wallet and payment gateway which enables contactless mobile payments via NFC. The payments can be made at the NFC enabled payment terminals by holding your iPhone over the terminal in such a way that it comes in contact with the point of sale. You can also make these contactless payments through other Apple devices like iPad, Apple Watch and Mac. The main idea is to replace the conventional payment method of making payments through credit and debit cards where you have to swipe the magnetic tape of the card on to the terminal in order to make a transaction.

Apple Pay also employs two-factor authentication via Touch ID and Passcode, thereby rendering a high level of security to the transactions.

Android Pay And Other Competitors

Even in FinTech sector, Apple is clearly not alone. When it comes to contactless payments, there are numerous tech giants that are lined up to give a tough competition to Apple Pay. Google of course tops the list with its Android Pay services that are getting more and more popular. Android Pay was launched in September 2015 and it offers similar contactless payment services to the Android users. The NFC payments feature was first introduced in Google Wallet which was later removed and the same was passed on to Android Pay. Google Wallet is still operational in the US. However, in order to pay through Google Wallet at stores, your Google Wallet account must be linked with your existing debit card or personal bank account. Also, you can’t use Google Wallet at the NFC payment terminals as there is no Tap and pay functionality like Android pay and Apple Pay in Google Wallet as of now.

On the other hand, Android Pay is operational in many other countries and many are yet to be included. Apart from these two, there several other tech savvy companies that are offering similar NFC payment servers. The list includes some prominent names such as PayPal, Samsung, Lemon Wallet and Square Wallet. But despite of this rising competition, Apple Pay is still marching its way towards glory with a steady expansion and growth in user base.