Like Apple and Samsung users in China, Xiaomi smartphone owners are now able to use “tap to pay” at contactless payment terminals in stores.
But Xiaomi users will have an added feature – they can also use it to pay for public transportation in six major cities. Specifically, these cities are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangdong, Suzhou, and Wuhan.
This makes Xiaomi the first smartphone maker to successfully support contactless payment on buses and trains in China, beating out bigger players. Xiaomi already started mass transit payments earlier this year in Shanghai and Shenzhen, according to local reports.
Getting phones to make payments on public transportation can be a complicated process, due to the different standards used by NFC chip manufacturers. Apple, for example, plans to integrate a new chip into future iPhone models to support the system used in Japan.
To pay on trains in Singapore, users have to get a new SIM card with an EZ-Link NFC chip embedded in it – an annoying process that becomes limiting because it works with a limited range of smartphone models.
EZ-Link is the country's contactless payment card for buses and trains.
On the credit card payment front, Apple was the first to launch in February in China, followed by Samsung in March.
Like Samsung and Apple Pay before it, Xiaomi has signed up with China's UnionPay to ensure it has the best possible coverage of the country. It is the country's largest interbank network, with five million contactless payment terminals across China.
At launch, Mi Pay will support credit cards from 20 banks in the country, including major banks such as Bank of China and China Construction Bank.
