Apple Gives 50% Discounts, Leads Biggest Apple Pay Promotion since China Entry

On July 13, Apple’s official Chinese website announced its summer promotion, which will see users get as much as 50% off purchases and 50 times points at participating vendors in its biggest campaign since entry to the country.

Overall, 29 retailers are participating including Starbucks, Burger King, Wagas, Häagen-Dazs, Lawson and Gap, with some e-commerce merchants like JD.com, Ctrip, and NetEase Kaola.

On February 18 2016, the day when Apple Pay officially entered China, more than 30 million bank cards were registered. At that point in time, China had 82.2 million iPhones which were either iPhone 6 or newer, meaning almost a third of all users had taken up using the service.

However, after nearly a year and a half of operations, Apple and other smartphone companies like Samsung and Huawei’s payment offerings still trail wildly behind Alipay and WeChat Pay, who have a combined market share of 93.21%.