Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE is to include Oberthur Technologies’ (OT) Pearl embedded secure element (eSE) in its new Nubia Z9 and Z9 Max smartphones... More
China
Gemalto pilots contactless wristbands for transport in China
PARTNER NEWS: Digital security company Gemalto is supplying wristbands carrying an embedded Optelio Contactless Minitag and a fitness tracker across the transportation network in Wuhan — one of the most populous cities in central China — to enable commuters to ride on buses and the metro with a wave of their hand... More
Alipay 9 launches with support for Koubei merchant payments and P2P transfers
Ant Financial has released a new version of its Alipay app for iOS and Android, adding new Friends and Merchants tabs that provide support for peer-to-peer payments and for Koubei, the US$1bn mobile commerce joint venture between Ant Financial and Alibaba that was announced last month. More
Macau shops to get Alipay mobile payments upgrade
Shops and restaurants in Macau which accept the Macau Pass contactless card can now apply to upgrade their terminals to enable support for Alipay mobile payments and China UnionPay Quick Pass cards... More
McDonald’s to pilot mobile order and pay in China
McDonald’s is to begin piloting a mobile ordering and payment service in China in the third quarter of this year, with the aim of speeding payments and to meet consumer demand... More
Ant Financial valued at US$45bn
Chinese e-commerce giant Ant Financial has completed a Series A financing round that values the company at more than US$45bn and makes the Chinese government a stakeholder, New York Times reports... More
Rémy Martin to launch NFC bottle in China for authentication and rewards
French spirits brand Rémy Martin is to launch a connected cognac bottle equipped with an NFC tag that will let consumers check the product is authentic and whether it has been opened and resealed, as well as allowing them to retrieve rewards and special offers after it has been purchased. More
KFC China restaurants to accept Alipay mobile payments next month
Nearly 5,000 KFC China fast food restaurants will accept Alipay mobile payments next month, following in the footsteps of Walmart which is rolling out support for the service in all of its Chinese stores by the end of this year... More
Alibaba and Ant Financial invest nearly $1bn in Koubei mobile commerce platform
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Alipay parent Ant Financial have each invested RMB3bn (US$483m) into Koubei, a joint venture that will let consumers order and pay for local services in China using their smartphone, “with an initial focus on the food and beverage segment”... More
China UnionPay to take NFC to Hong Kong
China UnionPay has invested an undisclosed sum in Jetco, the largest ATM network operator in Hong Kong and Macau... More
Face++ raises $25m for selfie payments
Face++, the Chinese facial recognition technology startup behind Alibaba’s selfie payments service, has secured an additional $25m in a series B funding round, taking the total raised to $47m... More
Alibaba signs up brands for QR-like dotless visual codes
Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has launched a platform for brands and product manufacturers that will enable them to place “dotless visual codes” on product packaging so that consumers can scan to check a product’s authenticity and get information, discounts and recommendations based on their preferences... More
Samsung picks Oberthur for mobile payments in Europe
Samsung has chosen Oberthur Technologies for the deployment of Samsung Pay mobile payments in Europe later this year, utilising the technology provider’s Pearl secure element embedded in Samsung S6 and S6 Edge devices. More
Walmart to accept Alipay mobile payments in China
Walmart is to begin accepting Alipay mobile payments at 25 stores in Shenzhen, China, and the service is to go live in all of the chain’s 410 stores across 160 Chinese cities by the end of this year... More
Australia leads the way for contactless ownership and usage
Two thirds of Australians are now aware they own a contactless payment card and 53% have made a contactless transaction, research released by RFi Group has revealed, taking the country to the top of a leaderboard for both contactless awareness and usage rates... More
Samsung to use NXP SE for Chinese devices
Samsung will build NXP’s SmartMX P61N1M3 embedded secure element into versions of its Galaxy S6 destined for China, where it will be used in the Samsung Pay NFC mobile payments service... More
Tencent’s mobile OS to offer payments
Chinese internet giant Tencent has released a mobile operating system that is set to include mobile payments functionality... More
Starwood guests unlock hotel rooms with Apple Watch app
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has launched an app for the Apple Watch that enables wearers to tap their device to unlock hotel room doors via Bluetooth... More
NFC to connect Shanghai smart business district
A landmark one square kilometre “smart business district” in Shanghai will use NFC as part of a strategy to network every office, hotel, apartment block, shopping mall and residential property within the area when construction is complete in 2017... More
Alibaba checks in simple hotel booking
Hotel customers with high credit scores will be able to book rooms on Alibaba’s online travel booking platform Alitrip without having to provide their credit card for room deposits and bypass check-out with payments automatically deducted from their Alipay accounts... More