Two phone giants have announced they will roll out mobile payments services in China in 2016.
Both Apple and Samsung made announcements on Friday that they will bring their mobile payment services — Apple Pay and Samsung Pay — to users in the world's most populous country.
To make this happen, they've inked separate deals with China UnionPay, the country's interbank network, so their services will be extended to account holders with most of the banks in the country.
UnionPay also has a reported 5 million contactless point-of-sale payment terminals in China, so Samsung phones and Apple iPhones newer than the iPhone 6 are likely to work with them.
Launching with a large network of banks will allow the companies to avoid some of the snags encountered in other countries. In Australia, for instance, Apple Pay rolled out only on American Express, and not the country's four large banks, which has made the service less popular with users and retailers which want to avoid AmEx's fees.
It won't be easy to dominate Alipay
But a UnionPay hookup isn't all there is to cracking the mobile payment pie in China.
China's mobile payments space is dominated by Alibaba's Alipay service, which in 2014 commanded over 80% of the market. Alipay says it has some 400 million registered users too, which is more than twice the size of PayPal's userbase.
Alipay is nearly ubiquitous in large cities in China, where people use it over-the-counter in stores, in taxis and and to pay for bills.
Forrester researcher Di Jin didn't seem too optimistic about Apple's nor Samsung's chances against Alipay. He told Mashable in an email that Apple and UnionPay's partnership "is unlikely to help Apple gain more users from their competition, despite UnionPay’s existing mobile payment alliances with banks and internet companies."
"Alipay remains the industry’s dominant player, which Apple Pay would find difficult to surpass in the near future."
"Alipay remains the industry’s dominant player, which Apple Pay would find difficult to surpass in the near future."
And Samsung faces an even greater battle, the analyst said. Samsung's smartphone share in China has been on the decline, faced with strong domestic competition and the persistent popularity of the iPhone.
"Even if Samsung were to introduce its mobile payment function, it will not be a major selling point for consumers. Nevertheless, Samsung does not want to fall behind Apple in the mobile payments market, and has negotiated with UnionPay for a long time for this partnership," he said.
Besides Alipay, Apple and Samsung will also have to tussle with other large Chinese companies that have managed to stake out their own parts of the mobile payments space in China, by tapping their existing users.
Tencent WeChat, for example, is the country's dominant messaging app with around 500 million active users, and 200 million users' credit card information.
WeChat allows people to pay their bills and transfer money to each other easily with a phone number, so you don't need to fumble with bank transfers. It even includes a bill-splitting calculator in its app, which can text a group of friends with a prompt to pay with a click.
The Force has awoken — and it left plenty of mysteries in its wake. Indeed, anyone who sawStar Wars: The Force Awakens on its opening night Thursday probably has more questions on their lips when leaving the theater than when they went in.
That's as it should be — this is, after all, a franchise that has long thrived on mystery. But it also means we have a lot to talk about before Episode VIII hits theaters in May 2017.
Let's dive in to the main questions, and speculate about some of the answers.
1. What's up with Luke?
This is the biggest of big burning questions from the final scene of the film, in which Rey finds Luke randomly standing all alone on a rocky green island (actually in Ireland). Why did Luke take off?
Sure, he started a Jedi academy, then Kylo Ren turned against him and slaughtered his students. But that doesn't necessitate splitting town and covering your tracks so definitively that your family has to track down pieces of a galactic map to find you.
We suspect the answer has something to do with Luke himself, and perhaps with the old prophecy about bringing balance to the Force. Maybe that balance, between Jedi and Sith, is now at war within Luke himself.
2. What is the connection between Rey and Luke Skywalker?
IMAGE: LUCASFILM
Given Rey's clear Force ability, and the flashback she saw when she touched Luke's lightsaber on Takodana, it seems very likely that Rey and Luke are blood relations. That would also tie in with his "the Force is strong in my family" monologue from Return of the Jedi, which was re-written ("you have that power, too") and featured in the second trailer, but not in the movie.
It's entirely possible, then, that Luke's first words to Rey may be a repetition of the most famous line from Empire Strikes Back: "I am your father." If so, she would be quite justified in shooting back: "that's not true. That's impossible!"
But if it is true — and we may be looking at a red herring here — who is Rey's mother? If you want to see a hardcore Star Wars fan's head explode, just whisper the following name in response to that question: "Mara Jade."
3. Why exactly was Rey left on Jakku?
IMAGE: LUCASFILM
Again, you can pretty much piece together a story from the lightsaber flashback: Rey was taken from Luke's Jedi training course at a young age and hidden somewhere safe from Kylo Ren's revenge. But why dump her on a random desert planet? Was it just because Luke himself was dumped on his dad's desert planet, and he thought it might be character-building for her?
What exactly was the plan here, and was someone ever going to retrieve her? Luke, you got a lotta 'splaining to do.
4. Who was Max Von Sydow's character, and why did he have the map?
Max Von Sydow's character is called Lor San Tekka, and he gets to speak the very first line of the new Star Wars trilogy: "This will begin to make things right." He is then killed in the First Order's assault on his Jakku outpost, right after handing over a piece of the Luke map to Poe Dameron. But why did he have that map piece in the first place?
This isn't the largest question Lucasfilm has to answer in the next installment, but it would be nice to know the company is paying attention to small loose threads like this (and not just leaving them to be tied up in other media, in the same way you'll only find out why Threepio got his red arm by reading the Marvel comic books.)
5. Who is Supreme Leader Snoke?
The 25-foot tall figure, voice and motion-captured by Andy Serkis and seen only in hologram form, was by far the most mysterious character introduced in the new movie.
We know he leads the First Order, ruling by fear much as the Emperor did; we know he's Force-sensitive and was able to sense an "awakening." (And while we're about it, what exactly was that awakening, anyway? Rey's newfound awareness of her Force abilities, or something more?)
But where did Snoke come from? What manner of creature is he? Has he battled Luke previously, hence the scars and his Skywalker obsession?
6. How powerful is the First Order?
The First Order assembles.
IMAGE: LUCASFILM
This question may be connected to the previous one; we don't know exactly how much Snoke's Force ability is powering or controlling his Stormtrooper army. We know the First Order is powerful enough to construct a superweapon that is an order of magnitude greater than the Death Star. Does that mean its boundaries stretch farther than the Empire's once did? Or is it just a small but immensely powerful entity that roams the cosmos, annihilating planets at will?
7. What is the connection between the Republic and the Resistance?
We have a similar question about the other side. There seems to be a difference between the restored Republic, represented by the Senate, and the Resistance, led by General Organa, Admiral Ackbar and the gang. How are they connected? Is the Resistance a kind of Special Forces operation that only exists in First Order-controlled territory? Or is there more of a rift between the galactic government and its military arm?
8. Will we see Kylo Ren, General Hux and Captain Phasma again?
IMAGE: LUCASFILM
This one seems like a no-brainer — all three bad guys appeared to survive the Resistance assault on Starkiller base. But their competition for screen time made The Force Awakensweaker than it could have been. How will Episode VIII avoid the same problem?
9. Will Leia pursue 'Ben' for killing his father?
IMAGE: LUCASFILM
Leia's reaction to Han's death at the hands of their son in The Force Awakens was poignant, but toothless. Where's the anger, General Organa? And what's next? Will she try to bring her son, whose real name is apparently Ben, to justice, or to turn him back to the light side of the Force?
If so, maybe don't stand so close to his lightsaber.
10. Will we see Han again in any way, shape or form?
IMAGE: LUCASFILM
So far, no major character on the side of good has truly died in a Star Wars movie; not without returning in some way, at least. Obi-Wan came back a Force ghost; Yoda came back as a Force ghost. Even Qui-Gon Jinn from the prequels returned as a Force ghost in the Clone Warscartoons (he was originally supposed to do so in Revenge of the Sith, but for Liam Neeson's scheduling conflicts; in the movie, Yoda at least confirmed that he had made contact with Qui-Gon).
So is there any way we'll see Han again? I know, the Force was not particularly strong with him. But he married into a Jedi family; perhaps some of that rubbed off. Perhaps Luke is powerful enough to make contact with his spirit, or perhaps Leia can get a final goodbye out of him.
It may be a cheesy move that downplays Han's sacrifice, but we wouldn't say no to seeing him one last time. You just can't keep a good scoundrel down.
