Apple Pay comes with hot NFC domestic mobile phone manufacturers to embrace UnionPay

â—ŽEvery reporter Meng Qingjian

Since the launch of Apple Pay, the rumors of entering China have not been broken. After a while, I will tell the story of the bank, and I will say that I will pay for the Alipay, and I will say that I will get everything done.

Today, Apple Pay, based on NFC payment technology, is already operating in China. Come here, just in China Mobile payment market where WeChat and Alipay are in full swing, how will the application of Apply Pay and UnionPay and domestic banks bring changes to the payment industry? Can Apple build a payment empire in the Chinese market? Will it activate the upstream and downstream of the NFC industry chain?

The rising star has challenged the old payment companies, and the 2016 Chinese payment industry is destined to be filled with smoke.

Two years ago, UnionPay and operators made important support actions and made huge subsidies to mobile phone manufacturers equipped with NFC (Near Field Communication) payments. However, due to the immature ecological environment in which domestic near-field payment was underdeveloped, many mobile phone manufacturers were slow. The layout of NFC payments is "halfway." But now, Apple Pay's entry into China has reactivated the once-cooled NFC payment technology, and mobile phone manufacturers have become important players in the payment market.

At present, mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi have released signals to actively promote NFC payment technology. Insiders of the UnionPay told the "Daily Economic News" that most mobile phone manufacturers ranked in the top ten shipments have signed cooperation agreements with UnionPay. At present, there are a number of models that are adapting.

It is worth noting that the reporter learned from the above-mentioned UnionPay person that Apple Pay will receive income through two parts, one is to get the bank payment by the number of Apple Pay-bound user bank cards; the other is to obtain the bank share as a consumer payment channel. "But the benefits of the follow-up domestic mobile phone manufacturers will be mainly the former, and the payment sharing will be significantly weaker than Apple, or even not."

Domestic mobile phone manufacturers follow up

Although Apple Pay is difficult to match WeChat or Alipay in a short period of time, with its popularity, the future support for NFC payment functions will become the standard for smartphones. China's mainstream mobile phone manufacturers are bound to not fall behind.

The insiders of the above-mentioned UnionPay told the reporter of "Daily Economic News" that Apple Pay's entry into China has a clear driving effect on the cooperation between Android phones and UnionPay. Most of the top ten mobile phone manufacturers in the world have signed cooperation agreements with UnionPay, and many Android machines. The type has been adapted.

According to the reporter, Huawei and Xiaomi, which are among the top domestic mobile phone shipments, have already released positive signals for NFC payments. HUAWEI Pay was deployed on Huawei Mate S in September 2015. Huawei released Mate 8 and Huawei Wacth both supported mobile payment. Mate 8 also released the "UnionPay Cloud Flash Payment". In December last year, ZTE released ZTE Pay, which increased the functions of public transportation and wealth management compared to Apple Pay.

On the 18th, a person familiar with the matter told reporters that Xiaomi 5, which will be released next week, will be re-matched with NFC payment technology. Xiaomi is expected to disclose more cooperation content with UnionPay at the press conference. In fact, Xiaomi 2s and Xiaomi 3 have been paid with NFC, but by the Xiaomi 4th generation, the NFC chip and the antenna have been eliminated in the configuration of the NFC due to the low frequency of NFC payment users. This Xiaomi 5 plus NFC configuration, can be seen is optimistic about the prospects of mobile payment. Samsung Mobile's payment for Samsung Pay is also about to launch a public beta program in China, and it is expected to officially land soon.

The above-mentioned UnionPay person said, "We expect more and more mobile phone manufacturers to join in, but the performance of the first cooperation between UnionPay and Apple is very important. After the promotion of the previous round of NFC payment technology, because of the lack of consumer scenarios, many mobile phones Manufacturers have become cautious."

The reporter also learned that not all mobile phone manufacturers are interested in NFC payments. OPPO, a mobile phone manufacturer with more than 30 million units shipped in 2015, has added NFC configuration to high-end models Find7 and N3. At the same time, it has reached a cooperation agreement with UnionPay and other institutions, but currently does not use NFC technology on its mainstream flagship machine. .

"One is the cost consideration. As the market competition intensifies, the cost of mobile phones in the price range of 2,000 yuan to 2,500 yuan is already very sensitive. Second, the lack of NFC usage scenarios is an invalid configuration. It will take a look at the market reaction in the future. "The relevant person in charge of OPPO told the reporter of "Daily Economic News".

Domestic mobile phones are not divided?

Bringing a good experience to consumers is one aspect of mobile phone manufacturers' attention, and the cost of coverage is an inevitable consideration for many mobile phone manufacturers. The reporter learned from a manufacturer of NFC antennas in Shenzhen that the cost of adding an NFC configuration with ESE (embedded security components) increased by 4 to 5 dollars per handset. This is undoubtedly a small cost for some mobile phone manufacturers. Then, can the mobile payment ecosystem with UnionPay bring payment sharing to mobile phone manufacturers?

It is reported that in the United States, Apple Pay cooperates with VISA, MasterCard, American Express and other card organizations to support more than 1.5 million merchants. The charging model is based on the existing credit and debit card charging structure, and charges are collected from the issuing bank. It is 0.15% or 0.5 cents of the transaction amount. From Apple's support of NFC technology in China about 80 million device terminals, it will bring a good profit.

"In the Chinese market, Apple Pay mainly obtains revenue through two ways. One is to obtain a one-time promotion payment for the relevant bank by binding the user's bank card; the other is to obtain the bank payment fee share as a consumer payment channel." The reporter said that Apple is the business model creator in UnionPay's payment chain, and the domestic mobile phone manufacturers as followers will get much less revenue in this ecology, mainly because of one-time promotion and payment, with little or no cost.

However, domestic mobile phones equipped with NFC payment technology can still obtain some subsidies from operators. In December last year, China Telecom launched a 7 billion yuan policy incentive plan to promote terminal enthusiasm, including 600 million yuan of functional customization incentives. With 4G+, NFC, single card, encryption and intercom functions, there is a reward of 20 yuan per item, and for each item, an additional 10 yuan will be added on the basis of 20 yuan.

In the 2016 terminal plan released by China Mobile, it plans to expand the NFC application scenario by developing 100 urban bus applications and 100 school-enterprise card applications, and build an NFC payment ecosystem. It plans to develop 10 million NFC users in 2016. The white card is inserted into the box (that is, a white card of NFC-USIM is placed in the NFC mobile phone box) to provide 15 yuan/household business reward for the NFC mobile terminal, emphasizing the development of NFC technology.

Fully activate the NFC ecosystem?

After several years of development, NFC payment ushered in the Apple terminal with the strongest user appeal. The torch that Apple ignited is also expected to activate the upstream NFC industry chain market.

NFC payments are considered to be superior to other payment methods in terms of security. At the same time, NFC payment methods can meet the needs of mass small, just-needed, high-frequency living such as public transportation and subway card swiping, and have advantages in more application scenarios.

First benefited from the POS machine industry. According to central bank data, as of the first quarter of 2015, the overall size of China's POS machines was 16.421 million units. According to statistics, UnionPay has supported more than 5.7 million non-recognized POS terminals, which has a vast inventory upgrade space and a fast-growing incremental space.


Most of the views are that under the demonstration effect of Apple Apple Pay, there will be more mobile phones supporting NFC payment in the future, and the penetration rate of NFC mobile phones is expected to continue to grow at a high rate. According to IHS Technology, shipments of NFC-enabled smartphones in 2013 were 275 million units, and shipments in 2018 will reach 1.17 billion units. Since the all-terminal solution will be the future trend, from the hardware point of view, the beneficiaries are mainly NFC chip suppliers and NFC antenna suppliers.

According to public data, the main suppliers of NFC chips are NXP, Broadcom, ST, and MediaTek. NXP dominates the market and is also a supplier to Apple, winning about 90% of the global NFC chip. Domestic manufacturers such as Hua Hong, Tongfang Microelectronics, Fudan Microelectronics, and Datang Telecom are also developing NFC chip products. The main suppliers of NFC antennas include TDK, Murata, etc. Domestic companies include Sunlord Electronics, Xinwei Communication, Shuobeide, and AAC Technologies.

Shunluo Electronic Secretary Xu Jia said to the "Daily Economic News" reporter yesterday that the main customers of Sunlord Electronics NFC antennas are domestic mobile phone manufacturers. NFC technology has been the focus of the market under the leadership of UnionPay, but the recent market reaction is not warm. Whether Apple Pay can drive the demand for domestic mobile phones to erupt again, it still needs long-term observation.