What is the main function of Apple Pay?

After nearly two years of release and various twists and turns, Apple's ApplePay mobile payment service finally arrived in mainland China on February 18, 2016.

Early in the morning, my friend circle was flooded with all kinds of ApplePay features, card binding guides, and live broadcasts asking for help or showing off. Those who failed to bind their cards tried for more than an hour, restarting, changing cards, calling customer service, changing their location to the United States, and trying everything they could; and those who succeeded wanted to bind all the bank cards they had opened a few years ago but had not yet activated. Finally, the server crashed...

As a result, there was another wave of howling in the circle of friends, some complaining that they couldn't bind their cards, and some regretting that they didn't bind two more cards. If it was another company, they would have been scolded, but the friends who bound their cards yesterday had no time at all. They raced against time to bind their cards, join the trendy circle, and then post a circle of friends or a Weibo to announce it to the world. Who has time to scold!

Everyone is rushing to bind Apple Pay. What are the advantages of Apple Pay over existing mobile payment applications? You can consume with your phone, and you can pay without password after setting it up. It is basically a homogeneous product. If you have to say what is more advantageous, it is that the moment of swiping the card is safer, because Apple Pay is essentially an electronic credit card. However, the phone does not display the card number and cannot transfer money. You need a fingerprint to pay, so if you lose your phone, you will not lose money through Apple Pay.

As for information security, although Apple itself is a company that resists the FBI injunction in order to protect customer privacy, Apple itself will certainly not sell your personal information. But again, the essence of Apple Pay is an electronic credit card. Your credit card information has been sold hundreds of times for $10 a piece, and it is not much safer than being used by third-party payment applications for big data analysis.

So, what are we fighting for when we rush to bind ApplePay? Are you fighting for the special card discounts of ApplePay, or to help UnionPay fight against Alipay and WeChat? Ugh! Who cares about these!

The main function of ApplePay can be summed up in one word: install. Every time a new iPhone model is launched, it triggers a rush to buy it among Chinese people. Overseas purchasing agents made by Chinese people have bought out all iPhones in other countries, and even indirectly led to the price adjustment of iPhone 6 in Japan.

The reason why Chinese people spend so much money is not that they particularly appreciate the beauty of Apple's technology. On the contrary, many people don't even understand the basic functions of the iPhone. It's just that the iPhone is much cheaper than the Hermès Birkin bag, Chanel little black dress and Burberry trench coat, but the effect of the display is not much different. Now that ApplePay has appeared, even iPhone users are divided into different levels. After all, this is a function that can only be used on iPhone 6 and above. Now, the world of showing off has added a general.

Even if Apple Pay cannot transfer money or send red envelopes, its usage channels are narrow and its reputation abroad is so-so, these don't matter. What people care about is just taking out an iPhone or iWatch, lightly pressing a fingerprint, and successfully paying for a bottle of two-dollar mineral water. The moment you turn around, you feel the aura of "Congratulations, you have obtained Apple Pay, a must-have new product in the show-off world" in the wind.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.