From “Made in India” to “Indian Digital Wallet”, Apple Pay has officially entered the market! Apple (AAPL.US) launches digital payment challenge to Google

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the US consumer electronics giant Apple (AAPL.US) is further extending its Indian layout from manufacturing and retail to daily payments. On September 30, Apple Pay, its exclusive digital payment technology, officially entered India. It was the first batch to support Visa and Mastercard credit cards issued by Axis Bank, covering physical stores, in-app and online shopping scenarios. For Apple, this latest digital payment development is expected to transform the expanding user base of devices into more frequent consumption expenses for the Apple ecosystem — iPhone and Apple Watch not only carry communication, entertainment, and applications, but are also further integrated into daily consumption. In the future, if bank coverage is expanded and connected to India's mainstream payment system UPI, it is expected that its service reach will continue to expand.

This move is in line with Apple's recent service adjustments in India. Apple previously announced on September 14 that Apple TV and Apple Arcade will be included in Indian users' iCloud+ subscriptions at no additional charge. From content subscriptions to payment features, Apple is increasing the reasons for users to stay within its ecosystem. It can be deduced from this that India's value for Apple is simultaneously reflected in the three aspects of distributed supply chains, increased hardware sales, and long-term service consumption by users.

Google (GOOGL.US), one of Apple's rivals in the Indian market, is superimposing AI and financial services on existing digital payment portals. On July 29, Google launched Ask Google Pay, powered by Gemini, in India, which allows users to analyze spending records and understand financial concepts through dialogue. At the same time, it also expanded co-branded credit card cooperation with SBI Card, and announced AI subscriptions and Pixel phone discounts for Flex users. This also means that competition between the two sides is extending to cross-penetration between payments, smart assistants, devices, and subscriptions — Apple relies on its large user ecosystem to expand payment usage, and Google relies on the Gemini AI application ecosystem and the frequency of Google Pay usage to promote a wider range of digital services.

Apple launches digital payment service in the Indian market, challenging Google and Paytm

According to media reports, Apple recently launched payment services in India, seeking to strengthen its influence in this important growing market with more than 1 billion consumers.

The US tech giant said in a statement on Wednesday that Apple Pay was first launched in partnership with local bank Axis Bank. This means that Axis Bank customers can deposit a credit or debit card into an Apple wallet on their iPhone and Apple Watch and then use the device to pay.

The Cupertino, California-based company is targeting the rapidly expanding middle class in the world's most populous country. Although lower-cost Android devices dominate the market, Apple's expanding manufacturing and retail layout is helping it attract more users among affluent Indian consumers.

Apple Pay verifies and authorizes payments through Face ID or Touch ID, and is suitable for in-store touch payments, as well as website and in-app payments.

Some media recently reported that with the passage of time, the service will expand the scope of support and connect to bank cards of other mainstream banks around the world, as well as unified payment interfaces (UPI) supported by the government. UPI dominates the digital payments sector in India by allowing users in India to instantly transfer money and quickly pay their bills digitally.

Google Pay, a tech giant owned by rival Alphabet, PhonePe by Walmart, and Paytm, a digital payment leader in India, dominate the fiercely competitive Indian payment market.

Apple Pay may further boost consumer demand for Apple's high-end consumer electronics devices. These dazzling devices make emerging market users yearn for, but they are expensive. Apple has expanded its network of stores in India. Currently, it operates six direct stores in the region, distributed in places such as New Delhi and the financial center of Mumbai. The company has also increased the number of partner stores.

Apple's expanding manufacturing business in India has helped the company move 25% of global iPhone production to the country. After US President Donald Trump escalated the trade war with China, Apple is increasingly using India as a hub for iPhone exports to the mainland of the US.

Payments become an “ecological binder”: turning a single purchase into a long-term user relationship

The core logic behind this competition is “hardware to acquire customers, pay to retain customers, and service to extend the monetization cycle.” Mobile phone purchases have a long cycle, but payments can occur frequently; when wallets, watches, apps, and content subscriptions form stable usage habits, the convenience of the device ecosystem has the opportunity to increase users' desire to retain and switch later.

High-frequency use of payments is expected to enhance user retention and provide long-term support for hardware switching and service consumption. It also means that Apple and Google's competitive focus extends from individual product coverage to long-term profitability brought by payments, AI, hardware, and subscriptions.

The potential value of Apple Pay includes not only the payment business itself, but also support for hardware appeal and service penetration. Apple has made it clear that it will not charge consumers for Apple Pay payments, and the available data is insufficient to calculate its potential revenue contribution to Apple's Indian business based on this.

From a technical perspective, payment competition relies on the collaboration of authentication, security credentials, and transaction networks. Apple Pay processes transactions through device-specific payment tokens, secure elements (Secure Elements), and dynamic security codes, and combines Face ID, Touch ID, or device passwords to complete authentication, reducing the exposure of real card numbers. AI can add value in consumer analysis, product discovery, and operational assistance, while fund transfers still have to follow clear authorization and payment processes. Therefore, as cutting-edge AI agents such as Muse that focus on complex workflow workloads and multi-step software operations go deeper into commercial activities, reliable authentication and efficient payment execution capabilities are more likely to become important competitive conditions for superplatforms.

The Indian payment market also shows a special market pattern of “entry competition and network cooperation” worthy of investors' attention — Axis Bank has previously cooperated with Google to launch a Flex co-branded credit card, and now it is Apple's initial partner; Apple's official announcement also lists Paytm as a payment service provider to help it connect to the merchant network. It can be seen from this that there is competition and cooperation between Apple, Google, and local platforms, and the value of the digital payment business ultimately depends on who can increase active users, payment usage frequency and ecological retention, and whether these indicators can be converted into sustainable profits.