NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Vivo, China’s second largest smartphone maker, made it official this week, launching its NFC-enabled “vivo Pay” wallet, the last of the major Chinese phone OEMs to roll out NFC payments–though their use has been disappointing, at least for payments in stores.
Vivo joins another major Chinese OEM, Oppo, in launching NFC this summer–with both following earlier NFC wallet rollouts by Xiaomi, Huawei and Meizu, along with those from foreign rivals Apple and Samsung. The question, however, remains–how important will NFC applications be in the face of continued market dominance in China by QR code-based wallets Alipay and WeChat Pay? Some believe that NFC might stand a chance in the market for transit payments. And the Chinese OEMs are also launching wallets in order to offer non-NFC-based financial services, such as wealth management and lending.
Vivo timed the official announcement of vivo Pay this week with release of its new 5G flagship smartphone, the NEX 3. It reportedly has at least seven handsets that support NFC, including the high-end iQOO Pro, which launched last month. Vivo had soft-launched its NFC payments service in the past few months.
