Huawei still has a long way to go to enter the top echelon of China’s third-party payment industry.

Image: EqualOcean

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei expanded its business into the online payment domain, with Huawei Pay officially being available in its digital wallet service HUAWEI wallet.

Huawei Pay allows Huawei/Honor device users to make payments by simply tapping their NFC-capable phone against a contactless payment device or card reader. In certain countries and regions, Huawei Pay also allows payments to be made via a barcode or QR code. Topping up, cash withdrawal and other business-side services are also accessible.

As of the press date, it has secured bindings with debit cards from over 140 domestic banks and credit cards issued by 100 banks. 

According to the official website, Huawei Pay is available in 25 countries and regions, including Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Thailand and India.

Several marketing campaigns have been launched to promote the wider applications of Huawei Pay, for example, cashback and free membership. However, “it is impossible to compete with Alipay and WeChat Pay in a short time frame,” said Wang Pengbo, principal analyst from Botong Consulting.

Another researcher Huang Dazhi from a specialist research institute named Star Atlas Institute of Finance added that Huawei Pay was “not comparable” to the above two payments in some ways, as “they are more like a way of life and asset management.”

While Huang acknowledged that although the current mobile payment market is relatively saturated, there is still a large room for Huawei Pay to grow.

Other e-wallets operating in comparable areas include the most widely used digital wallets PayPal (PYPL), Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Wallet.