Apple Pay comes to India: How it works, where you can use it, and more
Apple officially introduced Apple Pay in India today, setting foot in the country's expansive digital payments landscape. The tap-to-pay service can be utilized on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch platforms, with Mac support forthcoming. Apple Pay is currently partnered with Axis Bank, Visa, and Mastercard for its Indian launch. Initially, only Axis Bank-issued Visa and Mastercard credit card holders will be able to integrate their cards into Apple Pay for in-store and online transactions across India.
Apple Pay simplifies transactions by allowing customers to tap-and-pay using tokenized card information stored on their devices, eliminating the need for separate payment apps.
Apple Pay will be accepted by numerous merchants in India, including Apple Store locations, Blinkit, Chaayos, Comet, Croma, Interflora, Ixigo, Le15 Patisserie, Reliance brands, Tata 1mg, Zomato, and more. The tech giant has collaborated with various payment service providers (PSPs) such as Cashfree, JusPay, Mswipe, Paytm, PayU, Pine Labs, Razorpay, Worldline, and others to integrate Apple Pay into their merchant networks in India, with an anticipated expansion of merchants and apps in the future.
The introduction of Apple Pay in India comes as part of the company's ongoing efforts to expand its presence in the world's second-most populous nation, home to 1.4 billion people and a burgeoning middle class. So far, Apple's India ventures have primarily focused on expanding manufacturing and retail operations. Apple's smartphone market share in India has doubled to 8% since 2022, according to Counterpoint Research.
Despite this growth, the company is now targeting the country's competitive digital payments market, which has been impacted by the Indian government's recent 0.4% UPI merchant fee on specific transactions. Jennifer Bailey, Apple's vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, expressed excitement about bringing Apple Pay to Indian users, emphasizing the service's security, privacy, and convenience.
Written by urgent.news from The Indian Express's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
