Apple Pay begins process to enter China

Apple has registered an entity in the Shanghai free-trade zone to operate Apple Pay in China, The Wall Street Journal reports. Apple Technology Service (Shanghai) Ltd. is the name of the new entity, which was registered in June. A number of issues have delayed an Apple Pay launch in the country, but this most recent development puts Apple in position to gain approval from regulators to enter the market. If the company does get approved, the WSJ notes that Apple “would be entering a market where electronic payments are already deeply entrenched”— a main competitor would be Alibaba’s Alipay, which has about 320 million mobile users. Nevertheless, Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously said that he’s “bullish” on Apple Pay’s potential in the country.