After unveiling the service last month, Xiaomi on Thursday announced the launch of its Mi Pay service in China. Launched in collaboration with China UnionPay, Xiaomi's new Mi Pay is currently only China-bound service.
The Chinese brand touts that it's the first "smartphone company in the world" to support contactless payments through both bank cards as well as public transportation cards. The service will currently support public transportation cards from six cities across China. At launch, the Mi Pay service will support debit as well as credit cards from 20 banks including those from Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications and China Merchants Bank among others.
For paying through the Mi Pay service, Xiaomi users will have to add their China UnionPay or public transportation cards to the Mi Wallet app. China UnionPay is a payment network system that works same as the Visa and Mastercard. The new Mi Pay service will currently work only on the Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship smartphone.
Much like other mobile payment solutions, the Mi Pay will use the NFC technology. Xiaomi claims that it has incorporated multiple authentication mechanisms on the Mi Pay. For now, only the Xiaomi Mi 5 supports NFC in the company's lineup.
Announcing the new service, Xiaomi Founder and CEO Lei Jun said, "We believe that Mi Pay will be a key driving force in promoting the development of China's mobile payments industry, and deliver much more convenience to our users. In the field of mobile payments, China UnionPay has been committed to collaborating with various stakeholders to build a structured and sustainable ecosystem. After cooperating with China UnionPay over the past three years, Xiaomi is now truly excited about our joint partnership to launch Mi Pay."
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