Timothy Cook, Apple CEO, has revealed that 1 million credit cards were activated on Apple Pay in the first three days that the mobile wallet went live, the New York Times reported. The CEO made the statement during a tech conference in Laguna Beach, California.
Apple made deals with many merchants, including Whole Foods, Walgreens, McDonald’s,
Apple Pay to work with Alibbaba
Macy’s and Nike. Some retailers are still holding out, with Rite Aid and CVS disabling Apple Pay from working with their stores. The shops are part of a group that is working on a competing mobile payment system. Cook suggested it was only a matter of time before the retailers came around.
Cook also spoke about his desire to protect consumer privacy, following up on reports that the tougher security in Apple’s new mobile software system, iOS 8 drew criticism from law enforcement officials, who said the new encryption methods would hinder investigations. Cook said that if a company were to design a way for the police to gain access to a user’s data, it could end up in the wrong hands.
Meanwhile, as top US pharmacies turned their backs on Apple Pay Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is interested in teaming up with Apple Pay on mobile payments, according to comments from Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Speaking at at the WSJDLive tech conference in Laguna Beach, California, Ma agreed that it made sense for his company’s Alipay Wallet mobile system to partner with Apple Pay. “I hope we can do something together,” said Ma, adding that it should be a “marriage” that both sides want.
Cook subsequently confirmed he would like to work with Alibaba and that he would be meeting with Ma later this week to discuss potential partnerships. “We’re going to talk about getting married later this week,” he said.
Since raising $25 billion in an IPO in September, Alibaba shares have risen 44% and the company has a market capitalisation of more than $240 billion, making it larger than Amazon and eBay combined. According to comments made by Ma at the WSJDLive conference, Alibaba’s payment service, Alipay, currently has over 300 million active users and even allows users to pay for hospital fees and rent cars.
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