Chinese Apple Music, App Store Users Can Now Use WeChat Pay

September 1, 2017         By: Steven Anderson

It’s one of those developments that has to be a little galling, though almost certainly necessary. While Apple would likely no doubt rather see Chinese citizens turn to Apple Pay in large numbers, the company has opened up the field to allow said Chinese to use WeChat Pay instead when making purchases on Apple Music or on the App Store.

WeChat Pay, almost certainly to Apple’s chagrin, is China’s second most popular mobile payments system behind runaway favorite Alipay. WeChat Pay holds around 39.5 percent of the market as of 2017’s first quarter, according to reports from Analysys, a Beijing research firm. Apple Pay, meanwhile, managed to seize fully one percent of that market, which is still enormous objectively but subjectively nearly nonexistent. Alipay at last report holds 53.7 percent of the market.

While Apple CEO Tim Cook is publicly noting that Tencent, the force behind WeChat Pay, is still one of Apple’s “…biggest and best developers,” it’s still got to be privately galling to open the platform up to competing payments tools. Yet when you consider that Alipay and WeChat Pay between them represent a little over 93 percent of the market, it’s the kind of thing where you basically have to bite the bullet and let them in if you really want any kind of appreciable sales.

Apple Pay has not caught on in China the way anyone in Apple would like to see. That much is clear. Frankly, it’s not likely to catch on in that way, either; when two firms represent 93 percent of the market, it’s a safe bet that no one’s going to break in on that market successfully. Consumer patterns are too ingrained, and unless someone does something breathtakingly stupid at Alipay or WeChat Pay, the chances customers will leave in any significant sense is too low to mention. It’s like Windows Phone going after Apple’s smartphone market.

It’s likely one of those “que sera, sera” moments where you just have to grin and bear it, but for Apple, opening up the floor to rival payment platforms—even if it does mean business in the music and app markets—is going to be a tough point to bear.