Back in April earlier this year, Xiaomi announced their plans to get into the mobile payments game. After all we’ve seen Google, Apple, and Samsung get into it, so why not Xiaomi, right? For those wondering about it, the company’s CEO Lei Jun has officially announced the launch of the service dubbed (unsurprisingly) Mi Pay.
As expected, Mi Pay will only be available to those living in China, however with Xiaomi’s plans to eventually expand overseas, we wouldn’t be surprised if Mi Pay eventually found its way to other markets as well. The banks supporting the service include the China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, Huaxia Bank, Minsheng Bank, Ping An Bank, and Industrial Bank.
There is also the Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank, China Everbright Bank, Beijing Bank, and Guangdong Development Bank. As to how Mi Pay will work, it will function pretty much like other mobile payment services and that is through the use of NFC. As it stands, the Xiaomi Mi 5 has NFC so obviously it will be able to take advantage of that.
We expect that future Xiaomi phones will include the technology as well to support the service. It remains to be seen whether or not Mi Pay will be able to dominate the market like Xiaomi has the phone market. After all they are up against the competition like Apple who launched Apple Pay earlier this year in the country.
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