US consumers can now place orders from coffee giant Starbucks by speaking into the Starbucks iOS mobile app or to Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa. The move comes as the company reveals that mobile orders made up 7% of all its US transactions in the last quarter, with mobile payments now accounting for 27%. More
Nearly one fifth of global consumers (18%) have made an in-store mobile payment in the past six months, representing an increase of 10% from the same period in 2014, research released by trade body Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) reveals. Chinese consumers lead the way, with 38% of them having paid with their phone at the point of sale — nearly double the global average. More
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is to ban third-party payment providers, such as Alibaba-owned Alipay, from using their clients’ money, China Daily reports... More
Customers of China Merchants Bank will be able to withdraw cash using face recognition technology installed in all of the bank’s ATMs in Shanghai by the end of 2017, South China Morning Post reports... More
Fast food chain KFC and Chinese internet giant Baidu have opened a smart restaurant in Beijing’s Financial Street that uses facial recognition to make menu suggestions to new customers based on their gender, age and mood, and recommendations to returning customers based on items they have ordered in the past... More
Apple has added 14 banks and credit unions to its list of financial institutions in China supporting Apple Pay, and a further 30 in the US... More
PARTNER NEWS: Smartphone maker Huawei is to begin rolling out NFC mobile payments for public transport in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing through Huawei Pay, which launched in China in September 2016... More
Customers at about 2,500 Starbucks locations across mainland China can now make mobile payments using Chinese internet giant Tencent’s WeChat Pay mobile payments platform by scanning a QR code at the point of sale... More
Retail giant Muji is to accept Alipay mobile payments in nearly 200 stores in mainland China... More
Apple has updated its list of Apple Pay-supporting financial institutions in Australia, China, Russia and the US... More
China is leading the US when it comes to mobile commerce, with nearly twice as many Chinese consumers making a mobile purchase over the previous 12 months than their American counterparts, a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) says... More
PayPal has enabled money transfers via Apple’s Siri voice command function, enabling users with iOS10 devices to make payments by speaking requests... More
Half of banking customers around the world are using the products or services of at least one fintech firm, according to the first World FinTech Report (WFTR) from Capgemini and LinkedIn, but customer trust in fintech providers is low... More
The number of mobile payments made in China have grown 10% year on year since 2013, according to the People’s Bank of China (PBoC)... More
Chinese mobile payments giant Alipay is targeting 2bn users globally in the next decade, the company’s Douglas Feagin has revealed at Money20/20 in Las Vegas... More
Chinese mobile payments giant Alipay is expanding its presence in US and European retail stores via a deal with POS maker Verifone... More
PARTNER NEWS: Digital security giant Gemalto is to provide connectivity and security to Alibaba’s YunOS internet of things (IoT) operating system which is “widely integrated” into mobile devices, and chips and sensors in connected cars and smart homes, across China... More
Chinese visitors to the UK can now use Alipay at any retailer accepting mobile payments platform Zapper... More
PARTNER NEWS: Activation rates for the NFC mobile transit solution introduced by NXP and handset manufacturer Xiaomi in China have grown more than 15% in Shanghai and over 20% in Shenzhen since services on the Mi 5 smartphone launched in June 2016... More
Commuters in Beijing can now use Lenovo X3 smartphones to make NFC mobile payments across public transportation services... More