Android Pay, QuickPass Expand to New Markets
This week marks a couple of “firsts” for two mobile wallets. Android Pay has launched in its first Asian country, and UnionPay International’s QuickPass mobile wallet took its first step outside of China.
Following launches in the U.S. last year and in the U.K. last month, Singapore consumers who use MasterCard can make purchases using Google’s Android Pay on their eligible Android devices. Supporting banks include DBS Bank/POSB, OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered, with United Overseas Bank to follow. Android users download the app, set up an account and enter their MasterCard card information and use Android Pay at any of 30,000 contactless payments readers in Singapore. MasterCard uses tokenization, which replaces a traditional card account number with a unique payment token that’s restricted in how it can be used with a specific device, merchant, transaction type or channel.
Google is a participant in MasterCard’s Digital Enablement Express (MDES) program, which quickly digitizes and tokenizes MasterCard accounts, enabling Google to expedite the onboarding process with MasterCard issuers, and getting Android Pay to consumers more quickly, according to an announcement.
While Google introduces Singapore to Android Pay, China-based UnionPay is debuting its mobile wallet QuickPass in South Korea, marking its first foray onto foreign soil. QuickPass was launched with KT Corp., South Korea’s largest telephone company, and payments provider BCcard Co.
By bringing QuickPass to South Korea, UnionPay can capitalize on a large base of more than 19 million cards issued in the country. South Korean users also will be able to use their UnionPay cards in the mobile wallet when visiting China. Transaction volume of Korea-issued UnionPay cards in China grew 45 percent during the first five months of this year compared with the same period a year earlier. UnionPay debuted its NFC-based QuickPass in China at the end of 2015, already backed by more than 20 banks. This iteration of QuickPass is an improved version of the SIM card-based version released last summer, according to the payments network.
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