Apple has partnered with bankcard association China UnionPay to launch its contactless payment service Apple Pay in China from early 2016.
The move comes as a direct challenge to Alibaba's Alipay and messaging app WeChat's Wechat Pay payment systems, both of which are already enormously popular in the region, with the former accounting for some 82 per cent of mobile payment transactions according to iResearch.
Alibaba's Jack Ma expressed interest in partnering with Apple in an electronic payment "marriage" back in October 2014, saying: “I hope we can do something together.” Cook said he planned to meet Ma to discuss potential partnerships, but nothing seemed to come from the discussions.
Apple's platform, first announced in September 2014 and launched in the UK this July, allows users to make swift payments by registering their credit or debit card to their iPhone 6, 6s or Apple Watch and holding it up to a contactless terminal thanks to embedded near-field communication (NFC) chips.
Bank of China and China Construction Bank are among the 15 banks to sign up to the scheme as part of the UnionPay network, in both urban and rural parts of the country. It needs to complete relevant tests and obtain certification from Chinese regulators before it can be fully rolled out.
China represents a vast and lucrative market for Apple, as the country's insatiable desire for iPhones - sales of which have grown 65 per cent year-on-year - demonstrates. More than 7 million Apple Pay-compatible iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models were activated within days of going on sale, according to TalkingData.
Apple is the nation's second most popular smartphone brand behind homegrown hero Huawei, growing its market share to 22.9 per cent in the the three months to October, data from Kantar found.
In fact, chief executive Tim Cook took the unprecedented move ofreassuring worried investors back in August that Apple's performance in China remained strong despite fears over the cooling economy.
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