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Having spent a bit of time in China using Alipay and Wechat to pay for things, the biggest difference is convenience. The QR codes that drive those systems are

Having spent a bit of time in China using Alipay and Wechat to pay for things, the biggest difference is convenience. The QR codes that drive those systems are literally everywhere and much more convenient than NFC chips. Its much faster in a lot of cases to zap the QR code than wave or hold, or hold and wave your phone over a terminal that seems to require you to hold your tongue at a particular angle before it works, and then the sluggish performance of the actual payment is painful. Alipay and wechat are really fast. Plus in a lot of cases the vendors have no need of a terminal at all, just a printout of their QR and a phone to initiate the transaction. It might seem primitive compared to apple pay, or google pay, but its incredibly sophisticated and offers a much lower barrier of entry to vendors. When I got home I missed it especially for small purchases.

watermelon0 6y ago
I've never been to China, so don't know how fast Alipay is, but in my experience (from Europe), you need to put your phone/watch near the POS terminal for around 2 seconds, and payment is processed in like 5 seconds.
- smackeyacky 6y ago
  That sounds faster than here (australia). Using the NFC in a debit card is faster than a phone so it might just be our local payment processors adding friction.
pfranz 6y ago
I'm pretty sure the big difference is that Apple built on top of credit card infrastructure and Alipay (from what it sounds like) is its own payment system. I'm guessing that's a larger regulatory hurdle in the US and many companies wish they could. The sluggish performance and fickleness is 100% on the terminal. You can see an analog in how physical credit cards work on different terminals. Some you must insert your credit card only at the designated time. Too early and the cashier needs to tap a few buttons to reset the process. You must not remove the card prematurely. Other terminals you can insert your card whenever and it scans it pretty quick--usually before they're done ringing up items. Similarly, some terminals prompt early for ApplePay, aren't specific about which part you wave your hand over, and are almost instantaneous in completing. Others are the exact opposite.
- smackeyacky 6y ago
  Alipay and wechat are linked directly to a chinese bank account, so avoid mastercard or visa altogether. I don't know for sure but the big credit card companies do add something of a delay to everything.

watermelon0 6y ago

I've never been to China, so don't know how fast Alipay is, but in my experience (from Europe), you need to put your phone/watch near the POS terminal for around 2 seconds, and payment is processed in like 5 seconds.

smackeyacky 6y ago
That sounds faster than here (australia). Using the NFC in a debit card is faster than a phone so it might just be our local payment processors adding friction.

pfranz 6y ago

I'm pretty sure the big difference is that Apple built on top of credit card infrastructure and Alipay (from what it sounds like) is its own payment system. I'm guessing that's a larger regulatory hurdle in the US and many companies wish they could. The sluggish performance and fickleness is 100% on the terminal. You can see an analog in how physical credit cards work on different terminals. Some you must insert your credit card only at the designated time. Too early and the cashier needs to tap a few buttons to reset the process. You must not remove the card prematurely. Other terminals you can insert your card whenever and it scans it pretty quick--usually before they're done ringing up items. Similarly, some terminals prompt early for ApplePay, aren't specific about which part you wave your hand over, and are almost instantaneous in completing. Others are the exact opposite.

smackeyacky 6y ago
Alipay and wechat are linked directly to a chinese bank account, so avoid mastercard or visa altogether. I don't know for sure but the big credit card companies do add something of a delay to everything.