Apple Inc. apparently has plans to launch Apple Pay in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, and this has become evident from a job listing on the company’s website for an “Apple Pay Intern.” This listing was first spotted by iClarified.
Apple plans expansion
“Apple Pay is a new and exciting area in Apple that is set to expand across Europe, Middle East, India and Africa,” read the job posting.
The advertisement put up by the company describes the job as “specifically to support execution of multiple NDAs and contracts with third party partners.” From this, it appears that a core Apple Pay team has already been set up for EMEIA operations, and now the company needs help with more routine legal aspects of the venture. The person selected for the job will be working with Apple Pay partners, both internal and external. The listing states these partners will include issuing banks, international payment networks and European merchants.
It is not clear for now how much time it will take for the payment service to be released in other countries, but it is possible the service will be rolled out in Europe by 2015, as said by Visa Inc (NYSE:V) previously. It is rumored that for providing a payments solution in China, Apple and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) are in talks about a partnership.
Apple Pay hugely popular
Apple Pay was launched in the U.S. in October last year, but no official numbers have been released by the company since then regarding its performance. The payments service is off to a good start though, as suggested by circumstantial evidence. Both consumer interest and touch-less transactions at participating retailers have seen a significant increase, according to participating retailers like Whole Foods, McDonalds and Walgreens.
Within the first 72 hours of the service going live, the number of registered credit and debit cards with Apple Pay support crossed the one million mark, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. This number is higher than the total number of cards registered with all competing solutions combined, including Google Wallet.
Apple Pay is limited to U.S. credit cards at present, but expanding the program in other countries won’t be difficult for the company, as the service already works at NFC-supported point-of-sale systems in other countries and only requires banks to sign on.
